Introduction

This introduction draws on the main themes addressed in the volume and introduces the example of the circumcision debate in Germany to shed light on the risk of double standards that efforts to implement protections of autonomy can create. The authors acknowledge the difficulties of trying to define ‘autonomy’ as a precise legal principle and of assessing how autonomy plays out on the ground in different cultural contexts, but in the end determine that the potential benefits of the concept as a legal principle and analytical tool outweigh its shortcomings. The chapter concludes with some policy-oriented recommendations.