Birmingham 🪶17 Babies Suffer Serious Circumcision Complications

National Secular Society ★ 17 baby boys treated for "life threatening haemorrhage, shock or sepsis which relates to a circumcision" at one NHS trust last year.

The National Secular Society has warned of a 'catastrophic failure of child safeguarding' after damning new research reveals boys are coming to serious harm following circumcision in Birmingham.

Data acquired by the NSS shows 17 baby boys were treated for "life threatening haemorrhage, shock or sepsis which relates to a circumcision" at Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust last year.

A further 29 babies were treated at the Trust for serious complications between 2022 and 2024, at an estimated cost of £264,000 to the taxpayer.

The NHS only funds medically necessary circumcisions, which are rarely needed for infants, suggesting that many of the procedures were performed in the local community for non-therapeutic (i.e. religious or cultural) reasons.

Under UK law, anyone can legally circumcise boys, even if they have no medical training or "proven expertise". Anaesthesia does not have to be used, and doctors struck off the medical register for dangerous circumcisions can continue to legally circumcise boys as laypeople.

At least five babies have died since 2007 following non-therapeutic circumcisions.

Continue @ NSS.