(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121212-germany-circumcision-hmed-8a.photoblog600.jpg)John MacDougall / AFP - Getty ImagesGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, prepares Wednesday in Berlin to cast her ballot with other MPs after a debate in the German parliament's lower house over a law governing circumcision.By Donald Snyder, NBC News special correspondent
The German parliament voted Wednesday to keep male circumcision legal (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/10/14347482-german-cabinet-approves-controversial-circumcision-bill?lite), ending an international controversy that started when a Cologne court ruled the practice constitutes “bodily harm.”
The new law, proposed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, permits traditional Jewish circumcision, in which Jews trained in circumcision (mohels) circumcise male babies on the eighth day after birth, in accordance with the Torah.
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