The death of David Flynn during a non-therapeutic circumcision has reignited debate over Medicare funding and the risks of elective procedures on children, writes DrChris Coughran.

THE SAME WEEK that Education MinisterJason Clareannounced themost significantchild safety reforms in Australias history, the Coroners Court of Western Australia handed down itsfindingsinto the death of two-year-old David Kalunda Flynn.

The official cause of death was cardiorespiratory arrest in a young child with opioid (morphine) toxicity. As Coroner Robyn Hartleysreport explains, David was a happy, healthy child with no pre-existing medical conditions who never woke from the deep sedation administered for the circumcision he underwent at a Perth clinic in December 2021. Procedural sedation in the Coroners view but not, apparently, infant circumcision per se comes with significant known risks.

Meanwhile, Davids nine-month-old brother, Joseph, circumcised that same day, in that same Gosnells Clinic by the same doctor, but deemed too young for general anaesthesia, was rushed to Perth Childrens Hospital,where he underwent emergency surgery to control bleeding from his frenular artery.

COVIDexposed howlaws around medicinecan prioritise profit over patients isit time to rethink access to medicine as a human right?

Compounding the tragedy, there was no medical indication for either Davids or Josephs circumcision.

In fact, according to theAustralasian Institute for Genital Ausonomy:

In lieu of medical necessity, David and Joseph Flynn were circumcised in accordance withthe cultural and/or religious expectations of their parents.

The proportion of Australian doctors willing to perform non-therapeutic circumcisions on children is vanishingly small, arounda quarter of 1%.

But there are, at least in principle, constitutional and statutory impediments to Commonwealth funding for surgical procedures that are not clinically relevant for the purposes of theHealth Insurance Act 1973.

In practice,Medicareunder reactionary pressure from religious lobbyists hasturned a blind eyewhen it comes to non-therapeutic male circumcision, such that most circumcision providers, including purveyors of botched circumcision procedures, such as in this case, openly flaunt the Medicare rebate on websites and billboards.

Activists and the media are turning trans issues into controversy instead of helping to find ways to treat gender dysphoria in children.

This sordid state of affairs does a disservice to both public health and our democracy, as the late medical historianRobert Darby observed:

Far from promoting child safety, Medicare funding for routine circumcisionappears to imply:

David Flynns death will never be chalked up, in any public health database, as (yet another) botched circumcision. Accepting the judgment of two expert witnesses, Coroner Hartley seems satisfied that male circumcision has been safely 'practised for thousands of years for cultural, religious and health reasons'.

On 4 February 2021, the Victorian Parliament passed The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill, twenty-one votes to nine.

Likewise,Noor Blumer, who represented the Flynn family throughout the inquest proceedings, toldABC News:

The amputation of any healthy, functional body part is inherently harmful and, especially for young children, fraught with unnecessary risk. Botched or otherwise, anaesthesia or none, non-therapeutic male circumcision is scarcely to be reckoned in the childs best interests. It violates,among others, his rights to bodily integrity and the best possible healthcare, not to mention his own freedom of religious thought and belief. In extreme cases, male circumcision negates the childs right to life.

David Flynn never woke up. When will we, as a nation, stir from our collectivecircumcision coma? Wake up, Australia: routine circumcision isan idea whose time has gone. Our public health system is in sore need of something better than the fig leaf cum olive branch of a pretended multiculturalism. The safety of Australian children depends on it.

As Coroner Hartley concluded:

DrChris Coughranis an independent researcher.Schooled in English and the humanities, he is the survivor of a botched neonatal circumcision.