Berlin Jewish hospital suspends doing circumcisions after court ruling

One of my questions about the circumcision decision in Cologne, Germany has been answered - unlike a ruling by a district court in the US, the ruling applies to the entire country. The Berlin Jewish Hospital has suspended doing circumcisions for religious reasons after the court ruling.

Berlin's Jewish Hospital will suspend circumcisions after a German court ruled this week that performing the procedure on religious grounds is unlawful, a hospital spokesman said Friday."We are suspending circumcisions until the legal position is clear,"Gerhard Nerlich told AFP, citing head of internal medicine Kirstof Graf.

The hospital performs 300 circumcisions a year, a third of which are for religious reasons and the remainder due to medical concerns.

"We regularly performed circumcisions before this ruling but we don't have the legal freedom to do so any more," said Nerlich, adding that two procedures had already been cancelled.

Walter Russell Mead writes: "As of this moment in Berlin, it is against German law to live as a Jew."