PETITION OF:

Chapter 265 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 43 the following three sections:—
Section 44. No person shall commit ritualistic mutilation, dismemberment, or torture of a person as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
Any person who commits, attempts to commit or conspires with another to commit a violation of this section shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years.
Section 45. No person shall commit ritualistic physical or psychological abuse, including sexual abuse of a child or of a physically or mentally disabled adult as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
Any person who commits, attempts to commit or conspires with another to commit a violation of this section shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years.
Section 46. Whoever commits any of the following acts upon, with, or in the presence of a child age 18 or under shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years, or by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than two and one-half years, and whoever commits a second or subsequent such offense shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or any term of years.
(a) Actually commits or simulates the killing of, or tortures, mutilates or sacrifices any animal or human being.
(b) Forces the ingestion, injects or in any other way applies the use of a narcotic, drug, hallucinogen or anesthetic or mind altering substance for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, resistance, memory or to distort perception of any criminal or unlawful activity.
(c) In any way forces the ingestion of or external application of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, body parts, body secretions, drugs or chemicals.
(d) Forces or entices the child to have sexual contact with another human or animal during a ritual ceremony, or rite or other related observance.
(e) Places a child in a coffin or grave.
(f) In any way threatens the child with death or serious harm to the child, the child’s parents, family, friends or pets.
(g) Unlawfully dismembers, mutilates or incinerates a human corpse.
(h) Forces the child to be placed in areas in which the child will come close to or in contact with human body parts.
(i) Simulates the performance of surgery and placing imaginary foreign object within the child for the purpose of creating fear within a child.
(j) Forces a child to participate in any ceremony, observance, practice or rite, purporting to be a marriage to any deity or other person and following such ceremony, observance, practice or rite with sexual contact or torture.
No person serving a sentence for a second or subsequent such offense shall be eligible for furlough, temporary release, programs outside a correctional facility until such person shall have served three quarters of the total of all minimum sentences.
In prosecution under this section, it is not a defense that a child under the age of 18 will be deemed to have consented to the actions of the defendant.
The provisions of this section shall not apply to:
(1) The lawful agricultural, animal husbandry, food preparation or wild game hunting and fishing practices and specifically the branding or identification of livestock,
(2) The lawful medical practice of circumcisions or any ceremony related thereto,
(3) Any state or federally approved, licensed or funded research project.