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Answered by Vivienne Nathanson

The inclusion of boxing in the school curriculum is very worrying. While, in schools, it would be non-contact fighting exercises it could encourage more people to take up the full-contact sport outside school. Inevitably if people take part in “real” boxing they are exposed to the very real possibility of brain damage. The BMA believe there are two main reasons for banning children under the age of 16 years from boxing: • children have little understanding of risk, and are especially likely to underestimate the seriousness and level of risk of chronic brain damage, which develops only after a lag period measured in decades or more • there is no place in contemporary society for a youth sport which has, as its primary goal, the infliction of acute and chronic brain damage on an opponent. The BMA is calling for a ban on children’s boxing due to the severity of the risks involved.