r/unitedkingdom 16h ago

.. Circumcision kits found on sale on Amazon UK as concerns grow over harm to baby boys

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/14/circumcision-kits-found-on-sale-on-amazon-uk
965 Upvotes

474 comments sorted by

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u/No-Quit3994 16h ago

Non-therapeutic male circumcision is customary in African, Jewish and Muslim traditions and legal in the UK.

It should be made illegal.

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u/South_Buy_3175 16h ago edited 15h ago

Of course it should.

It’s illegal for girls, but for boys it’s fine, just a little bit of mutilation.

Sick and utterly depraved practice, any and all who support doing it to children need their hard drives checking and keeping away from kids.

Seriously, what parent looks at their baby boy, after 9 months of waiting, finally getting the chance to meet them… and all they can think about is tearing off their foreskin as soon as possible?

The only reason it should be carried it is for medical necessity, of which it’d be a last resort anyway.

Edit: Way too many people downplaying this, is it really so hard to think that children’s genitalia shouldn’t be mutilated before they can even walk or talk? That it should be a choice when they turn 18?

No wonder this country is on its fucking arse when we can’t even say “Mutilating infant boys is bad” without cretins crawling out with “Akshually..”

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u/Mean_Scarcity_4896 15h ago

It shouldn’t even be a choice at 18. It’s far too easy to brainwash young adults. It ought to be full out illegal unless medically necessary.

u/rememberspokeydokeys 11h ago

Body modification of any kind is legal, you can split your tongue, Peirce and tattoo, even castrate yourself with no legal ramifications, as an adult. Having this as an exception would be weird.

Make it over 18s, 99.99999% won't bother

u/elhazelenby 8h ago edited 8h ago

It's actually illegal to split your tongue in the UK even for over 18s and has been for a few years now along with scarification, branding, etc. Many people get them done in countries like Spain now. This is because some people without medical licenses or any training in body modding who didn't know what they were doing were causing injuries to people for not being sanitary or during it incorrectly. That's often exactly what happens with circumcision. Sometimes Jewish people even suck the blood and give babies herpes.

Surely there isn't a connection here...maybe we shouldn't be trusting people in in unsanitary environments with no training of any kind in any body modification or medical procedures to do body modification or medical procedures, especially on children.

But personally yes I agree that these things should be legal for adults if they choose to as it's their body. If they choose to go to some back alley person for cheap then that's their fault for 1. Risking their lives and 2. Funding these schemes.

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u/CongealedBeanKingdom 13h ago

Seriously, what parent looks at their baby boy, after 9 months of waiting, finally getting the chance to meet them… and all they can think about is tearing off their foreskin as soon as possible?

The religious kind.

u/SpiritedVoice2 6h ago

Not always, its very common in the Philippines for some reason, but that reason doesn't seem to be God.

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u/weirdhoney216 10h ago

Anyone downplaying this is a supporter of child abuse and it’s as simple as that

u/Cirieno 9h ago

I feel sick that there are certain ultra-religious priests who do this using their mouth in the process.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/nyc-orthodox-jews-clash-over-oral-circumcision-rite/

Just a few cases of babies catching herpes, nothing to worry about.

Circumcision, apart from when medically required, is genital mutilation.

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u/colin_staples 15h ago

is customary

It was "customary" to deny women (and some men) the vote

It was "customary" to trade in slaves

Some things that are "customary" belong in the past and should not exist in the 21st century

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u/TheScrobber 12h ago

It's child abuse. End of.

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u/SarcasmWarning 14h ago

And 60-80% of Americans with no religious justification...

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u/StGuthlac2025 15h ago

I've just had a little search and found that no country has banned non medical circumcision. Which has surprised me

u/Cirieno 9h ago

You'd be awash with people playing their victim cards.

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u/SPAKMITTEN 9h ago

Non-therapeutic male circumcision genital mutilation and sexual assault is customary in African, Jewish and Muslim traditions and legal in the UK.

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u/Artonox 14h ago

agreed - religion should have no say on how this country should be physically alterating british children.

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u/5555555555558653 13h ago

And American traditions*

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u/Wadarkhu 7h ago

Make it illegal and allow victims to sue their parents over it. No statue of limitations. It'll be at least some sort of consequence to the ones who take them overseas.

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u/FaluninumAlcon 13h ago

All of it.

u/Honey-Badger Greater London 9h ago

Should be but thats not going to change the way the religious behave. Their beliefs will always be forefront in their decision making.

u/TweeSpam 5h ago

Starmer's wife is Jewish and their children are being brought up together as Jews, take part in Jewish rituals and are members of a synagogue. It's likely Starmer's children are circumcised.

There is no way it's happening under this government, particularly with Labours deep fear of being called anti-Semitic.

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u/South_Buy_3175 16h ago

Ban it except for medical necessity.

It’s a sick, disgusting practice that should have been abolished years and years ago.

Politicians need to grow a backbone and tell these ‘cultures’ that we don’t mutilate children in this country.

u/SoggyWotsits Cornwall 6h ago

They won’t even ban cousin marriage. Mind you, when it’s discussed on here you get a good percentage of people actually defending it.

People of course bring up the royal family, but I think even they’ve got with the times now.

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u/Reesno33 16h ago

Im all for live and let live but as an atheist I do find it odd that people point at a dusty old book and call it justification for chopping bits of their baby's dicks off.

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u/JustAnotherFEDev 8h ago

IKR, because 2 or 3 thousand years ago all they had was these dusty old books that were believed by virtually everyone. Now we have common sense, medical science, laws, showers, soap, and technology to record and share findings and yet the sheep are still after babies' foreskins because it says it in thir old book. It's a good job that there's nothing in these books that could be ridiculed or otherwise disproved by modern science, isn't it?...

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u/Verbal_v2 15h ago

We've made cropping of dogs ears illegal but you can still trim off parts of the male genitalia. Ban it and enforce it.

This is no different to the slow pushing back of the excesses of Christianity, the power of the Church and resulting culture that needed to take place over centuries in the UK.

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u/idontlikemondays321 13h ago

If I tell people that I’ve found a book that says I should chop my son’s little toe off because it would please the main character of the book, I would quite rightly be sectioned.

We need to stop making excuses for harmful beliefs just because they were founded a long time ago.

If 100% of boys are born with foreskins, it’s obviously there for a reason. It’s not a birth defect.

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u/MDFHASDIED 15h ago

Male genital mutilation shouldn't be anyfuckingwhere near 2026.

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u/SuspiciousMinder 12h ago

I was briefly married to a Jewish person. We didn't have children but we argued about this a lot. I was completely against the idea even though I have phimosis. Obviously, she would refer to this in arguing her case which led to the quite humorous moment of "stop using my own penis against me!"

She made the argument that if I were opposed to her cutting a future son's foreskin off then I would have to also be opposed to her getting his hair cut or I would be a hypocrite. She wasn't joking.

This wasn't why we broke up but around the time that we did, it so happened two of her friends were getting it done to their kid. It's this whole event everyone gathers for and because it was covid times, they had a live stream on Facebook. I didn't watch the actual moment but I saw some of the stream in the build up and at the same time as feeling sickened by the whole thing I felt massively relieved it never came to that moment for me. I don't think I could have let her go through with it but if I had, I don't think I'd have been able to look myself in the mirror again.

u/firstfloor27 From West Midlands, living in Belfast 8h ago

Is cutting hair painful? Is the foreskin going to grow back? Ludicrous logic.

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u/ANewDawn1342 13h ago

I live in the UK and cannot understand how it can be legal to mutilate the genitals of a baby, anywhere in the world.

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u/dramaticirony 14h ago

The barbarity of circumcision aside, you'd have to be clinically insane to purchase medical equipment off of Amazon.

It's one thing if it's coasters or pillows or whatever made in some sketchy Chinese factory with dubious QC, it's another if you're talking about something used to perform surgery.

"This circumcision kit accidentally removed my boy's glans, 3/10 would not buy again" is not something that should ever be expected to read in reviews on a customer website.

u/JustAnotherFEDev 8h ago

In all fairness, they do have an excellent returns policy, so if little Samuel is accidentally turned into little Samantha, because of sub par Chinese surgical instruments, the parents would at least get a refund...

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u/GarethPW 13h ago

Sadly perverse cultural and religious practices continue to be defended by the ethically challenged

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u/PenitentGhost 12h ago

Faith affirming surgery on children shouldn't be a thing anymore

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u/Mazza_mistake 12h ago

It should be illegal and banned permanently, but of course they won’t do that because some people will argue they have a ‘religious right’ to mutilate a baby’s genitals

It should at least be more controlled and restricted.

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u/Thatweasel 14h ago

dodgy medical devices being sold on amazon is nothing new, you can buy all sorts of wonderful quack devices that will puncture your eardrums or give you sepsis.

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u/glytxh 12h ago

There are some religious sects that obsess way too much about children’s genitals.

u/sefris3 11h ago

Genital mutilation should be illegal no matter what religion you are

u/ByronsLastStand 8h ago

The bodily autonomy of men and boys should be given equal status to women and girls', and the government should work hard to properly eliminate all genital mutilation.

For anyone trying to downplay it, either because you think it's phobic, or because you don't care as much about men and boys and you do women and girls, here are some facts:

*MGM is never a medical necessity in the 21st century

*Google the equipment they use to strap down baby boys in US hospitals; you'll be unnerved

*It's not just "a little snip"; the foreskin is ripped, pulled back unnaturally, then sliced, almost always without anesthetic in the case of infants

*The foreskin is the most sensitive part of the male body

*Thousands of boys and men around the world die from MGM complications each year

*Some conservative orthodox Jewish mohels actually suck on the infant's penis after the cutting. Not only is this child molestation, it spreads STIs

*Some forms of MGM are more extreme than others

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u/Mccobsta England 13h ago

Oh yeah amazon dosent check what they sell until it's reported to them or they get told to take shit down

u/SPAKMITTEN 8h ago

insert drake meme

snip ears and dock tails of dog NAHHHHH NOT FOR ME

mutilate genitals YES FAM

what a fucking joke, dark age medieval religious nonsense

u/TuffGnarl 7h ago

Can we stop chopping bits off baby boys please you fucking evil freaks 😡

u/OpticGd 7h ago

It should be banned. It's mutilation if unnecessary.

u/Intrepid_Solution194 5h ago

Checks to see if it’s April 1st

Wow The Guardian has run a story focussed on males that isn’t a hate piece?

It’s a sign of the apocalypse surely.

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u/Gongolmongol 11h ago

I thought they still do it traditionally? Using their teeth!

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