Ministers will be asked to consider banning parents from piercing the ears of children or babies, because they are unable to consent to the procedure.
Labour MP Mark Tami said he intended to raise questions in the House of Commons about a potential age restriction for piercings, after a petition calling for a ban on child piercings has more than 28,000 signatures.
The MP for Alyn and Deeside first raised the issue in parliament after concerns from a constituent in 2013, but said he would ask the government to consider whether parents should be allowed to pierce their children’s bodies.
“If we allowed parents to do other things to their children’s faces, like tattooing, that would be appalling, but although piercings can heal, they can still cause distorting affects on the ear, in the skin and muscle,” Tami said.
“I would like to resurrect the issue, see it discussed again in parliament, and look to see what a potential age restriction should be,” he continued. “The question is, what age is appropriate? Certainly a baby or a child has no opportunity of consenting to having the procedure done.”
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The debate has been reignited by the 38 Degrees petition started by mother Susan Ingram. On the page calling for a minimum age requirement, she wrote: “Severe pain and fear is inflicted upon infants unnecessarily. It serves no purpose other than to satisfy the parent’s vanity. Other forms of physically harming children are illegal – this should be no different.”
But several have written comments under the petition, defending decisions to pierce children’s ears, with some taking exception to the suggestion of “vanity” when many choose to pierce ears for cultural reasons.
Please tell me this is not a thing. That this is a made-up non-troversy, and that parents are not actually piercing the ears (or other body-parts) of babies and toddlers. Can you not wait till they become teenagers and let them start destroying the bodies G-d or Nature gave them on their own terms and in their own time ?
* Not even going to get started on circumcision.
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