Adjudication No. 1229 (January 2004) [2004] APC 4

Adjudication No. 1229 (January 2004)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The West Australian by Dr Daniel King on the topic of male circumcision.

The complaint relates specifically to an article published on 5 November 2003. The complainant was concerned with what he considered to be factual errors contained within the article, relating to the inference that anaesthetic and pain killers are only used on circumcision surgery for boys (and not babies); and the potential for law suits later in life against parents who consent to the operation on best-interest grounds.

The 5 November article quoted the views of a prominent Western Australian obstetrician who, while supportive of the good public health argument for the procedure, did highlight the smaller risks associated with it, such as surgery going wrong and the issue of parental consent.

The 5 November article was a follow-up to an earlier and more prominently placed article on 4 November which quoted the views of a leading Melbourne University professor from a recently held Perth conference on the positives of circumcision. Both articles however also mentioned the views of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which is reported as having a policy that there is no medical reason for the procedure.

Other than a possible ambiguity about the use of anaesthetic and pain killers for babies, the Press Council considers readers have been given a balanced view of a controversial medical procedure from the articles of 4 and 5 November and from a number of letters also published.