Amazon has come under fire after selling “irresponsible” DIY circumcision training kits on its site.
Secular groups bashed the online retailer for selling the product, warning it could put children and babies at risk of being operated on by wannabe surgeons.
Following the complaints from the National Secular Society, Amazon has pulled the kits and practice dummies for sale from its UK site, although these appear to still be available via the company’s US arm.
The group wrote to Amazon twice asking for the kits, which are modeled on a child under 2 years old, to be “permanently removed from sale” as they encourage unqualified practitioners to attempt the risky procedure.
Circumcision is a highly debated procedure usually undertaken for medical or religious reasons and is typically carried out during infancy.
Dr. Antony Lempert, chairman of the NSS’s secular medical forum, wrote to Amazon: “We fear that the sale of this product may encourage unqualified practitioners to carry out unnecessary surgery on infants in non-clinical conditions, resulting in serious harm.”
He added: “Non-therapeutic circumcision is unethical and unnecessary and is putting infant boys at risk of death and serious injury.”
“This practice could be encouraged by the morally negligent sale of infant circumcision training kits to the public.”
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said: “No child should be subjected to unnecessary medical surgery. The morally negligent sale of infant circumcision training kits to the public normalizes this form of abuse and risks encouraging it.”
The Life/Form Circumcision Trainer Kits include surgical scissors, scalpels, a plastic dummy with prosthetic foreskin replacements and an instruction manual and were available for purchase on Amazon from $475 to $611.
Slightly cheaper versions of the outrageous kits are still available via the US site, but these items do not ship to the UK.
The kits advertised on Amazon are aimed at newborns and claim to have been developed “with assistance from one of the top medical schools in Wisconsin” alongside medical professionals from South Africa and Indonesia.
Speaking to the Sun, Amazon said it had taken feedback from the NSS onboard and confirmed all UK-based or UK-deliverable circumcision kits had been removed from its website.