A struck off GP who hospitalised a baby boy after a “reckless” and “cavalier” religious circumcision is still performing circumcisions as a layperson, the National Secular Society can reveal.
Following the circumcision, which put the child “at risk of fatal complications”, Lancashire-based Zuber Bux was erased from the medical register in 2019. He had also dishonestly produced expert reports on food poisoning cases to enrich himself.
Despite his erasure, Bux’s website and LinkedIn page both state he still performs circumcisions on children for “religious/cosmetic reasons” in North West England.
Both pages fail to explicitly acknowledge he was struck off. His website says: “I am no longer working as a doctor in the United Kingdom. And I am no longer registered with the GMC [General Medical Council]”.
An FOI request from the NSS to the GMC now shows three doctors with circumcision related complaints lodged against them between 2012 and 2022 have been struck off.
There is currently no legal requirement for circumcisers to be medically trained or even to have “proven expertise”.
The developments come as a coroner has called on the Government to take action to protect boys from the harms of medically unnecessary circumcision, and new draft Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance has listed circumcision as a potential form of child abuse.
‘Serious breaches of good medical practice’
In 2017, Bux ritually circumcised ‘Patient A’, a fifteen-month-old child with a heart condition, who was “vulnerable”. The circumcision was performed “in the community”, meaning not in a hospital.
An expert witness said Patient A was placed at “significant risk of life-threatening complications that could not be dealt with in the community”, which were “unnecessary for a religious procedure”.
The child’s heart condition meant “any increase in heart rate causes the patient to suffer a shortage of oxygen”. The “Distress or pain” of circumcision could cause an increase in heart rate.
The topical anaesthetic technique used by Bux was deemed “insufficient” and “not acceptable” and “does not produce adequate numbness of the foreskin”.
Bux was found to have breached his duty under the GMC’s ‘Good Medical Practice’ [GMP] guidance to “take all possible steps to alleviate pain and distress”.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found Bux’s “cavalier approach to carrying out the Procedure on a child with a serious heart condition amounted to serious breaches of GMP”.
Bux had not “shown remorse or given an explicit apology”. His behaviour was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration”.
“Gratuitous infliction of pain”
The case of Zuber Bux echoes that of Mohammad Siddiqui, a doctor struck off in 2015 for dangerous and cruel circumcisions who then continued to circumcise boys as a layperson.
Last year, Siddiqui was jailed for five years for circumcision related crimes including actual bodily harm and child cruelty.
One of the child cruelty charges related to a circumcision performed with no anaesthesia, which the CPS described as “gratuitous infliction of pain” and a “deliberate disregard for the welfare of the child”.
Despite this, religious groups continue to openly perform unanaesthetised circumcisions.
The Initiation Society, a registered Jewish charity which trains circumcisers, states on its website: “Babies are generally not anaesthetised during a Bris [circumcision]”. The Government has failed to confirm whether this is legal.
Last year, the Royal College of Anaesthetists told the NSS that the idea that circumcision is not painful is “erroneous”. It said local anaesthesia should be used if circumcisions are to be performed on infants.
The judge in the Siddiqui case, Noel Lucas KC, said “safeguards and protections must now be put in place and put in place as a matter of urgency, to ensure that babies and young children are protected”.
In July, Mohammed Alazawi was jailed for nine years for circumcision related crimes including wounding with intent. He had no medical training, a history of criminal violence, and could not read or write English. The judge again called for the law to be changed.
NSS: ‘Catastrophic failure of child safeguarding’
National Secular Society human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: “The fact that Mr Bux can perfectly legally continue to circumcise boys is a catastrophic failure of child safeguarding that is endangering the lives of boys.
“Local child safeguarding services should consider the obvious potential for harm of allowing a struck off doctor to continue circumcising boys, and act accordingly.
“More fundamentally, ritual circumcision is medically unnecessary, dangerous and violates the child’s independent right to freedom of religion or belief.
“When it comes to children, circumcision should only be performed by doctors, and only with medical necessity.
“Decisions about non-therapeutic circumcision should therefore be deferred until the individual is old enough to decide for himself based on his own values. Until such a time, the Government and the medical establishment must protect boys.”
Press coverage:
The Guardian: NHS doctor struck off over botched circumcision still performing operation