Editing Circumcision and law (section)

==== Nottingham case ====
{{update section|date=December 2021}}
In June 2017, Nottinghamshire Police arrested three people on suspicion of "conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm".<ref name="BBC2207" /> The alleged victim was purportedly circumcised while in his Muslim father's care at his grandparents' in July 2013 without the consent of his mother (a non-religious woman who conceived the child after a casual affair with the man, whom she had separated from after the incident).<ref name="Bannerman">{{Cite news |last=Lucy Bannerman |date=9 April 2018 |title=Mother to sue over son's circumcision |work=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/mother-to-sue-over-son-s-circumcision-kh09k22p8 |url-status=live |access-date=27 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627035909/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mother-to-sue-over-son-s-circumcision-kh09k22p8 |archive-date=27 June 2018}}</ref> The mother first contacted social services and eventually the police in November 2014. The police initially dismissed the complaint, but after the mother got help from the anti-circumcision group Men Do Complain and leading human rights lawyer [[Saimo Chahal|Saimo Chahal QC]], they reopened the case, and ended up arresting three suspects involved.<ref name="BBC2207">{{Cite news |date=22 June 2017 |title=Three arrested over boy's circumcision in Nottingham |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-40358944 |url-status=live |access-date=27 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012084514/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-40358944 |archive-date=12 October 2019}}</ref> In November 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service explained to the mother in a letter they were not going to prosecute the doctor, who claimed he was unaware of the mother's non-consent. However, Chahal appealed this decision, which she said "lacks any semblance of a considered and reasoned decision and is flawed and irrational", and threatened to bring the case to court.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jeff Farrell |date=10 November 2017 |title=Doctor avoids prosecution over circumcision on three-month-old baby 'without consent' |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/doctor-circumcision-three-month-old-baby-no-consent-prosecution-avoid-dr-balvinder-mehat-bakersfield-a8048261.html |url-status=live |access-date=27 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627034144/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/doctor-circumcision-three-month-old-baby-no-consent-prosecution-avoid-dr-balvinder-mehat-bakersfield-a8048261.html |archive-date=27 June 2018}}</ref> The by then 29-year-old mother finally sued the doctor in April 2018.<ref name="Bannerman" /> Niall McCrae, mental health expert from [[King's College London]], argued that this case could mean "the end of ritual male circumcision in the UK", drawing comparisons with earlier rulings against female genital mutilation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Niall McCrae |date=13 April 2018 |title=The case that could end ritual male circumcision in the UK |work=The Conversation UK |url=https://theconversation.com/the-case-that-could-end-ritual-male-circumcision-in-the-uk-94873 |url-status=live |access-date=27 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627034511/https://theconversation.com/the-case-that-could-end-ritual-male-circumcision-in-the-uk-94873 |archive-date=27 June 2018}}</ref>