Debate shall remain open until 02:45 GMT on November 25th, 2020.
I thank Councillor Aylin Gökçen for proposing this legislation, as I think having protections for Intersex people definitely needs to be codified through law. I will support this legislation to that end, but I have serious problems with other aspects of this Act.
I feel that both Section I and Section II are unworkable, extremely polarizing, and seem to be an attack on religious minorities, such as Jews, as pointed out by Councillor Tobias Johnson Farage.
I'll start with Section II. Personally, I am not keen to debate the merits of circumcision, since I suspect we will get nowhere on the issue. I'll give my thoughts, and then just leave it at that. There are many reasons why someone would get a circumsition, including medical reasons, which may not be life threatening, but may be for purposes of quality of life, which would be outlawed by this Act. Obviously there are also religious and cultural reasons, and I just don't think that it's the EU's place to clamp down and attack religious minorities. Also, just the concept of EU-mandated no circumcisions is a massive overreach. I think all of Section II should be removed for this reason.
Section I should also be removed, for the same reasons, because the entire section is almost a pre-cursor and more encompassing section than Section II. For instance, Section(I): "Citizens shall not be subjected to anybody modifications without their explicit consent", could basically mean circumsitition anyway, since that is a bodily modification, and obviously babies and very small children cannot provide consent.
Which brings me to the final point on this issue, which is that Section I would basically outlaw many, many different types of medical surgeries that would normally be performed on babies and small children, who cannot provide consent, and thus would have their quality of life highly impacted by the refusal of these surgeries, even if it they weren't life threatening ailments. For instance, many babies have to undergo plastic surgery or skin grafting after their skin has been damaged by severe rashes or burns.
Simply put: these sections are anti-medical, attacks on religious minorities, and are overreaches, since I personally don't think the EU should be deliberating on the willys of small children - the latter ought to be discussed and decided by your country's own legislature, if that so pleases you.
Here is my amendment:
Amendment II
DEFINITIONS
Body modification, the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance.
Circumcision, A type of body modification process for removal of a part or all of the human genitalia.
SECTION I - PROTECTION OF BODY INTEGRITY
* Citizens shall not be subjected to anybody modifications without their explicit consent if there is no risk of death or heavy injuries.
* Potential risks and side effects of body modifications shall be thoroughly explained and disclosed to the citizen before the beginning of the procedure.
* Each procedure shall carry its own explicit consent.
* Member states shall recognize anybody modifications without the consent of the citizen as an illegal and punishable offence
#### SECTION II - PROTECTION OF BODY INTEGRITY REGARDING CHILDREN
* No citizen under the age of majority shall be subjected to circumcision unless in the case of risking death or heavy injuries.*
* No citizen under the age of majority shall be subjected to any irreversible body modifications if there is no risk of death or heavy injuries. If the body modification in question is explicitly done to increase the quality of life for the child, explicit parental consent shall be taken before the procedure. Each procedure shall carry its own explicit parental consent.
Now, in terms of content, I quite like Section III and IV, and support these provisions.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista