Non-therapeutic male circumcision of infants: a gross violation of the infant’s bodily integrity and not in his best interest

Abstract

The practise of non-therapeutic infant male circumcision (NTIMC) is a violation of the infant’s right to bodily integrity and is against his best interests. The Children’s Act as the primary legislation aimed at protecting the child’s best interests from harmful practices like (NTIMC) is very ambiguous thus proving to be very inefficient. For the Act to be more efficient some of its sections ought to be amended to better protect male infants from this practise. This research project aims to defend the view that NTIMC should be banned in South Africa. I make the argument that surrogate informed consent for NTIMC by parents is not in the child’s best interest and it deprives the future adult of his autonomy, self-determination, and ownership and therefore the practise should be prohibited. Since the project is philosophical in nature it was strictly literature-based and therefore ethical theories and principles were employed to defend the thesis.