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Title: New York City Health Commissioner Has Issued A Strongly Worded Statement Calling For An End To A Controversial Circumcision-Related Rite
Source:
JTA
URL Source: http://www.jta.org/news/article/201 ... sioner-condemns-metzitzah-bpeh
Published: Jun 7, 2012
Author: JTA
Post Date: 2012-06-07 15:26:24 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 2394
Comments: 8
(JTA) -- The New York City Health Commissioner has issued a strongly worded statement calling for an end to a controversial circumcision-related rite. Dr. Thomas Farley said that direct oral-genital suction, known as metzitzah b'peh, should not be performed during Jewish ritual circumcision, and announced that several hospitals, including those serving the haredi Orthodox Jewish community, have agreed to distribute a brochure that describes the risk of contracting the herpes virus from the practice. The controversy over metzitzah b’peh was reignited in March after it came to light that an unidentified infant died Sept. 28 at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center from “disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction," according to the death certificate, Health Department investigations of newborns with herpes virus between 2000 –2011 have shown that 11 infants contracted the herpes virus when mohelim, or ritual circumcisers, placed their mouths directly on the child’s circumcision wound to draw blood away from the circumcision cut, according to a statement from the Health Department. Ten of these infants were hospitalized, at least two developed brain damage, and two babies died. The brochure “Before the Bris” describes the risk to infants of contracting herpes through direct oral-genital suction and advises parents to ask the mohel before the bris if he practices metzitzah b’peh. “There is no safe way to perform oral suction on any open wound in a newborn,” Farley said. “Parents considering ritual Jewish circumcision need to know that circumcision should only be performed under sterile conditions, like any other procedures that create open cuts, whether by mohelim or medical professionals.” Haredi leaders have resisted calls to replace direct oral suction with alternative approaches used by some mohelim, such as the use of a sterile tube or gauze to take the blood from the circumcision wound.
Poster Comment: JJackson didn't label it a 'gutter-religion' without reason, indeed.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
What the hell?
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
Check this out: Two Jewish infants in New Jersey were recently infected with — but survived — a herpes virus attributed to their ritual circumcisers’ use of an oral suctioning technique that is said to have caused the death of an infant in New York in September. Dr. Margaret Fisher, chair of pediatrics at Monmouth Medical Center, told the Forward that a newborn boy was admitted to the center within the past month, infected with the virus, known as HSV-1, within days of his circumcision. The other case “was in the last year or two,” said Fisher, a pediatric infectious disease specialist. Both boys had herpes lesions on their genitals but “extremely mild cases,” she said, and both were successfully treated for 10 days with intravenous anti-viral medication. The two babies were admitted to a hospital close to Lakewood, N.J., which is home to a large ultra-Orthodox community. News of the New Jersey infections comes amid renewed debate sparked by the report of the baby who died in September of HSV-1, acquired when his mohel orally suctioned his circumcision wound, according to New York City officials. The procedure, known in Hebrew as metzitzah b’peh, was last blamed for causing an infant death in New York in 2006. The death last September occurred at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center, and the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, said recently that he is conducting a criminal investigation into the matter. Metzitzah b’peh, which is practiced in particular by ultra-Orthodox mohelim, has never been illegal. Asked if Hynes’s investigation meant that the procedure might now be a crime, spokesman Jerry Schmetterer replied, “I don’t believe it is criminal, but I’m not a lawyer.” Pressed further on what law the D.A. believed could have been violated, Schmetterer said, “I’m not saying another word.” The family of the infant who died in September has declined to disclose to authorities who performed their son’s circumcision, or brit mila. In 2007, the mohel linked as an HSV-1 carrier to the death of a baby boy was prohibited under Section 16 of New York State’s Public Health Law by the state Department of Health from performing metzitzah b’peh “in and throughout the state of New York.” The mohel, Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, was also prohibited from engaging in any other practice in which he “[allows his] mouth or oral fluids to come in direct contact with an infant’s genitals…” But a story posted online by The Jewish Week of New York on March 13 reported that Fischer was taped in a phone conversation within the last two weeks saying it “was not a problem” for him to perform the procedure, in apparent violation of the ban. Never swear "allegiance" to anything other than the 'right to change your mind'!
Well, I am now officially disgusted beyond words. Is this really true? It's not a hoax? Please tell me this is a hoax.
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
The second article was published by The Forward, a jewish rag. Not a hoax at all.
Never swear "allegiance" to anything other than the 'right to change your mind'!
Nope, no hoax at all. Must really suck to catch incurable strains of gonorrhea or syphillis when you're 10 days old from some dirty un-holy man. Because if he was holy, he wouldn't have venereal disease, would he? I just noticed someone you know declaring that only the Orthodox are true Jews yesterday.
Apparently there are JINO's. Who knew?
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
JINO, nice turn of phrase. It was somewhat of a rare outbreak at LP of the old who's-a-Jew fight that goes on century after century. Being a not totally clueless Gentile, I'm not going to get involved in their tribal squabble. I think if I was Magician, I wouldn't have been as polite. But he did state his objection and made it clear he had a lot more thoughts on the subject. Vehement but restrained disagreement, a nice quality he showed there. Anyway, I don't want to discuss him too much over here. Seems too cross-forumish.
I agree. He was one of my favorite Jewish neocons at LP. You could discuss anything with him, and even have completely opposite views, without the drama queen theatrics of the others.
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
placed their mouths directly on the child’s circumcision wound to draw blood away from the circumcision cut
#2. To: We The People (#1)
Two Babies Sickened by Circumcision Rite; N.J. Infants Infected With Herpes Transmitted From Mohel
#3. To: Brian S (#2)
#4. To: We The People (#3)
Please tell me this is a hoax.
#5. To: We The People (#3)
(Edited)
Please tell me this is a hoax.
#6. To: TooConservative (#5)
only the Orthodox are true Jews
#7. To: We The People (#6)
Apparently there are JINO's.
#8. To: TooConservative (#7)
Vehement but restrained disagreement, a nice quality he showed there.
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