The requete was carried 29 votes to six.
Deputy Gavin St Pier led the group of deputies who signed the proposition. He said that a change in law would see fewer young people piercing themselves and their peers instead of getting it done properly.
‘The consequences are botched jobs by these amateurs using non-sterile equipment. This is the public health hazard that we are seeking to address,’ he said.
Deputy St Pier also noted that young people aged 16 and above were allowed to give sexual consent, join the army and get married with parental consent, but not get a piercing.
‘It is absurd and it’s overreach of government in the lives of individuals. I would hope that those who claim to be libertarians and supporters of small government rather than big government will support this,’ he said.
The proposal would allow for all non-intimate piercings, apart from surface piercings, stretchers and flesh tunnels, which would not be permitted.
Health president Deputy George Oswald submitted an amendment that would mean 16 and 17-year-olds would not be able to have cartilage piercings either, which would have effectively ruled out ear piercings apart from the earlobe.
‘I am uncomfortable with the idea that cartilage piercing would be available, albeit with parental permission to those under-18,’ he said.
‘Although this was not an area of interest for me in my medical career, I was aware of the potential risks involved with this.
‘The specific risks of cartilage piercing are perichondritis, which is an indolent, destructive infection of cartilage, or of keloid formation, which is otherwise known as hypertrophic scarring.'
Deputy Tina Bury, one of the deputies to have signed the requete, said that if Deputy Oswald’s amendment was carried, it would make the proposals in the requete difficult.
‘By removing cartilage from the proposed law, it would remove the ability to have any other part of the ear other than the lobes pierced, which is where we are now in terms of the law,’ she said.
She said the amendment would confuse what was legal and what was not.
‘I think that is very unclear and hard to justify in the real-world setting,’ she said.
The amendment was lost by 16 votes to 19.
How they voted
...on the proposal to allow professional non-intimate body piercings for 16 and 17-year-olds.
For: Deputies Blin, Bury, Cameron, Collins, Curgenven, de Sausmarez, Dorrity, Falla, Gabriel, Gollop, Hansmann Rouxel, Helyar, Kay-Mouat, Kazantseva-Miller, Laine, Leadbeater, Matthews, Montague, Ozanne, Parkinson, Rochester, Rylatt, St Pier, Strachan, Van Katwyk, Vermeulen, Williams; Alderney representatives Hill and Snowdon. Total: 29
Against: Deputies Camp, Malik, McKenna, Niles, Oswald and Sloan. Total: 6.
Abstained: Burford.
Absent: Goy, Humphreys, Inder.
...on Deputy Oswald’s amendment to continue to ban cartilage piercings.
For: Deputies Camp, Gollop, Helyar, Kay-Mouat, Kazantseva-Miller, Laine, Malik, Matthews, McKenna, Niles, Oswald, Parkinson, Sloan, Strachan, Van Katwyk, Vermeulen. Total: 16
Against: Deputies Blin, Burford, Bury, Cameron, Collins, Curgenven, de Sausmarez, Dorrity, Falla, Gabriel, Hansmann Rouxel, Leadbeater, Montague, Rochester, Rylatt, St Pier, Williams; Alderney representatives Hill and Snowdon. Total: 19
Abstained: Ozanne.
Absent: Goy, Humphreys, Inder.
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