Compensation for botched circumcision
Most no win, no fee solicitors agree that the issue of claiming compensation for male circumcision will usually be complex. Although male circumcision is no longer seen as being a "miracle surgery" capable of both curing and preventing "paralysis, bed-wetting, hip-joint disease, headache, alcoholism, criminality, club-foot, and heart disease", it is a surgical procedure still carried out on around 10% of UK men.
Sometimes, of course, there are valid reasons for carrying out the procedure. Both phimosis (tightening of the foreskin) and recurring infections continue to be cited by doctors as reasons for administering circumcision. Yet the consensus in the UK is that it should now only ever be performed if "absolutely medically necessary".
There are many anti-circumcision lobbyists who argue that men who have undergone the procedure as children should be paid out compensation on the grounds of mutilation. The foreskin, they argue, is a natural and healthy part of the body which plays a significant part in the pleasures of lovemaking. To cut it off without undeniable good reason, they say, is a violation of a person's human rights. Perhaps the most vocal proponent of this viewpoint in the UK is the action group Norm-UK.
Yet it is unlikely that most of the UK's estimated five million circumcised men would be able to get a no win, no fee solicitor to secure them compensation on the grounds of mutilation alone.
Compensation amounts are much more likely to be paid out to men and boys who have been the victims of botched circumcisions, as the law is clear that botched surgery constitutes medical negligence.
Inevitably, when surgery to such an intimate place in the body goes wrong, payouts are high. Only recently an Australian man received $360,000 (roughly £160,000) after a court found that the circumcision he received as a child left him with a "badly deformed penis" and deprived of the sensations of lovemaking.
Speaking after the resolution of the man's compensation claim, his personal injury solicitor commented, "This young man has suffered a horrific consequence as a result of this negligent procedure and he now has to live with the problem for the rest of his life," Mr Stephens said.
"I am really pleased for him, but no amount of money will ever truly compensate him for the injuries he has suffered."
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