A one-month-old Ghanaian baby died in hospital on Monday, where he was brought by emergency services after suffering cardiac arrest following a home circumcision.
The emergency call came from a building known as "Spazio
Neruda" where hundreds of homeless or evicted families are
squatting and where the boy's parents had brought him on Sunday
evening and spent the night.
"They circumcised their son yesterday, then they wrapped
him with gauze and gave him paracetamol," said a Spazio Neruda
resident.
Mustafa Qaddurah, a pediatrician and councillor with the
Islamic Cultural Centre of Rome, said Italy's national health
system doesn't cover circumcisions performed for cultural,
non-medical reasons.
"That means you either go to a clinic, where it's
expensive, or to these charlatans," Qaddurah said.
He said an unauthorised circumcision costs about 30-50
euros.
"According to our estimates, 30-40% of Muslims (living in
Italy) prefer to have it done in their country of origin, but
another 30-50% go to unauthorised personnel, who work in
unsuitable places, with the result of killing babies or causing
serious deformities, that we then see in our offices," he said.
He said there were other similar deaths recently in Treviso
and Puglia.
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