A letter of recommendation sent by the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health calling on public hospitals to perform religiously-mandated circumcisions on young boys has met with some opposition among Finnish health care professionals.

   

The university hospitals in Helsinki and Kuopio are sharply opposed to the recommendation to use public health care facilities for circumcisions.

   

Harri Lindahl, head physician of paediatric surgery at the Helsinki University Central Hospital, was surprised to read about the recommendation in the newspaper. He says that the hospital was never asked for its views on the issue.

   

In Tampere the head physician for paediatric surgery, Juhani Merikanto, has some reservations about the ministry's recommendation. However, he recommends that the instructions be followed at least for now, until a better solution to the issue can be found. Two of the seven paediatric surgeons at the Tampere University Central Hospital say that they are willing to perform circumcisions in the hospital.

   

At the Oulu University Central Hospital, head physician Vili Serlo says that the hospital's practice has been the same as that in the recommendation for several years already.

   

Even though the circumcisions are not a medical necessity, Serlo sees no economic reasons for refusing to perform them. "In Oulu we perform about 2,600 operations on children each year. About five of them are circumcisions. It has no bearing on finances, or labour."

Esko Länsimies, head of a Committee

of medical ethics at the Hospital District of Northern Savo, has told the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health that the Kuopio University Hospital will not change its practices, or adopt the instructions of the Ministry of social Affairs and Health until Parliament has drafted a law on the issue.

   

Preparations for such legislation are under way at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

In their letter

, the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities recommend that circumcisions of underage boys which are part of their religious tradition, should be performed as a public health service. The purpose of this would be to avoid the pain and possible complications of procedures undertaken at home.

   

The letter notes that a doctor has the right to refuse to perform such operations on ethical grounds.

   

Requests for circumcisions usually come from Muslim families living in Finland.