Children die after contracting herpes during blood-sucking circumcision ritual

**ayub57** · 11th August 2012

Brit milah, the ancient Jewish ritual of circumcision, has been making headlines worldwide recently: A German court declared it illegal, prompting the German government to promise legislation permitting it again; some Swiss hospitals announced they would no longer perform it; and legislation to restrict it was proposed in Denmark. Now, even Israel is entering the fray: The Israel Pediatric Association has declared war on metzitza b'peh, a portion of the ritual that doctors deem medically harmful but ultra-Orthodox rabbis deem obligatory.

Metzitza, the final stage of the circumcision, involves extracting blood from the incision. Today, it is usually done with a sterile tube. But some Haredi (ultra-Orthodox ) communities still use metzitza b'peh, in which the mohel, or ritual circumciser, uses his mouth to suck out the blood.

The practice was originally mandated by the rabbinic authorities because medical science at that time thought it helped prevent infection. But doctors today believe metzitza b'peh can actually cause infection, as diseases can be transmitted in this way from the mohel to the baby.

The pediatric association is therefore urging the Health Ministry to instruct hospital maternity wards and well-baby clinics to inform parents that metzitza b'peh isn't necessary.

The Chief Rabbinate responded that even now, mohels are careful to inform parents of the risks and let them choose. And most choose the tube rather than metzitza b'peh, said Rabbi Moshe Marciano, director of the rabbinate's brit department.

"It's true that Haredi mohels refuse to abolish [metzitza b'peh], but they don't refuse to ask," he stressed.

The pediatric association is actually taking its cue from the city of New York, whose municipal health department recently set up a special committee to decide whether to pass municipal bylaws outlawing metzitza b'peh. The committee was established following a criminal investigation in Brooklyn into the death of a baby in September 2011. The baby died of herpes, and the suspicion arose that he contracted the disease from the mohel via metzitza b'peh, since the herpes virus lives in the mouth.

The New York health department later reported that from 2000 to 2011, 11 circumcised babies had contracted herpes, of whom two died. It therefore strongly advised mohels not to perform metzitza b'peh.

Here in Israel, there are three to four cases every year of babies who may have contracted herpes from a mohel, out of 60,000 to 70,000 brits performed annually......

Israel Pediatric Association calls to end blood-sucking ritual during circumcision - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper