M SWIERS' remarks about ritual circumcision being another form of child abuse (Letters, Saturday, January 22) are ill-informed and vague.

The assumption that anyone that disagrees with the opinion being espoused must be of the Loony Left belies the political naivety of the correspondent.

Circumcision may be male or female - the former may have medical justification (why else could it be done on the NHS?), the latter most certainly doesn't. The former is a time-honoured ritual tradition for both Jews and Muslims; the latter is a form of oppression and torture. To consider them the same thing is ignorant.

Male circumcision done for religious rather than medical reasons must be considered in context to understand its importance.

None of the many circumcised men that I know have any regrets about the process and, in most cases, would have chosen to have had it done had their parents not made the decision, because it is such an important part of their faith.

Adult male converts into both faiths are willingly circumcised - surely there can't be that many masochists out there!

BENJAMIN EATON,

Stourport-on-Severn

Worcestershire.