City Mulls Requiring Consent for Metzitza B’peh
New York City health officials proposed on Tuesday that Orthodox Jewish parents be required to sign a consent waiver before they can take part in a circumcision ritual that is believed to have led to the deaths of at least two babies in the city over the past decade.
The proposal, introduced at a Board of Health meeting, represents an escalation of the city’s efforts to curtail the ancient Jewish procedure of metzitzah b’peh, in which an adult male, usually the circumciser, places his mouth directly on the wound created by the removal of the infant’s foreskin to suck away the blood.
Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report based on city information that said that from 2000 to 2011, 11 newborn babies in New York contracted the herpes simplex virus after the ritual. Ten of those babies were hospitalized; two suffered brain damage, and two died.
Based on those findings, the city’s health department issued a statement last week strongly urging that direct oral-genital suction not be performed during circumcision. It also announced that a number of hospitals had agreed to distribute a pamphlet to parents considering at-home circumcision, warning them of the risks.
On Tuesday, Dr. Jay K. Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control for the health department, announced the city’s next step, proposing that the Board of Health, which approves public health policies, require all parents who want direct oral suction to be used to sign a consent form indicating that they are aware of the risk of infection.
The mohel, or ritual circumciser, would distribute the consent forms to parents before the circumcision and keep them on hand for at least a year. The precise warning language would be written by health officials, Dr. Varma said.
Oral suction is no longer a part of most Jewish circumcisions, but among the more than 250,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in the New York area, the ritual remains commonplace. In its study, the C.D.C. estimated that roughly 3,600 newborn boys a year in New York had circumcisions that included the procedure. Those infants, the agency said, had more than triple the normal risk of contracting herpes.
Over the past decade, as stories of babies sickened after such circumcisions have come to light, ultra-Orthodox authorities have strongly defended the practice as a religious right. Some rabbis argue that there is not enough evidence to show that the procedure causes infection, while others say the practice is important enough that it should be continued anyway.
Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel, an umbrella group for many ultra-Orthodox organizations, said on Tuesday that the group wanted to study the proposed regulation before commenting on it. In March, the organization’s executive vice president, Rabbi David Zwiebel, warned that regulating the practice could drive it underground, making it more risky.
In his presentation to the Board of Health, Dr. Varma said that two of the families whose babies got herpes after the ritual had told health authorities that they were unaware beforehand that it would be performed. He said distressed families had called, as recently as two weeks ago, saying they did not know their mohel would place his mouth on their infant’s wound, and wanting to know what could be done.
The health department is accepting public comments on the regulation until a public hearing on July 23, and will vote on it in September. Dr. Varma said the department was prepared for opposition.
“Since we are regulating how part of a religious procedure is done, this will be heavily scrutinized by legal experts, and it may be challenged at some point,” he said. “But we feel we are on very firm legal ground, because there is a compelling interest on behalf of the city in protecting the health of infants.”
Chaim
About time this was done, having a bris takes away alot from a person when he gets older, and we should be able to sue a mohel for giving us a bris without our permission
Dovid
“…While others say the practice is important enough that it should be continued anyway.”
This is what happens what ideology gets in the way of logic.
Old fuddy duddy mohel
Chaim and Dovid, It’s a good thing that you guys know more than chazal. Please alert us when you come out with your new talmud with your piskei dinim.
As for me, a mohel for the last 8 years, if it was good enough for Moshe Rabbeinu, it’s good enough for me. I shall continue to do metzitza as the shulchan oruch says!!!!!!
Call Off The Dogs
The government is starting with a disclosure and if there isn’t enough opposition the government will try to regulate more and more until they will try to ban bris milah completely. Two deaths in a decade is not a sufficient sample to draw any meaningful statistical conclusions. This is just anti-Semitism. The dogs have no business regulating Torah and must be stopped now, before they go to step two.
Rambam
Afterwards, one should suck the place of the circumcision until all the blood in the further reaches is extracted, lest a dangerous situation arise. [This step is referred to as metzitzah.] Any [mohel] who does not perform metzitzah should be removed from his position. After one has performed metzitzah, one should apply a bandage, a compress, or the like.
Better Idea
A much better idea would be to test mohels for contagious diseases.
To Chaim Number 1
Take your placenta back too.
Milhouse
It’s a good thing that parents should be informed of the risk and of the opinions of the poskim on both sides of the question, and make an informed decision. It’s for the mohalim’s benefit too; that way in those rare cases where something does ch”v go wrong, the parents have waived liability.
#3 and #5, yes, that is the halacha, but there are many great poskim who hold that one can do it through a tube. Reb Chaim even insisted on a tube, and wouldn’t let mohalim do it without one. Lemayseh we don’t follow those poskim, but those who do are just as frum as us.
Milhouse
#5, a better proof from the Rambam is the fact that when doing a bris on Shabbos, if you noticed tzitzin she’einon me’akvin before the metzitzah, you go back and fix them, but if you noticed them after metzitza but before putting the bandage on you may not fix them, and if you do it’s chilul shabbos. Clearly, then, metzitzah is part of the milah and bandaging is not. This refutes those who say that it’s the same as bandaging.
religious yid
To #1 a mohel is asked by family members to perform a bris. It is not forced upon the baby by the mohel. So stop with this suing business. You obviously have a problem but do not blame the mohel or bris. Most likely your problem would be worse if you had not had a bris. So thank the mohel
Thats sick!
I think its disguising and should be illegal. It’s not a Jewish law. I’ve been to tons of brissim of Lubavitcher and very orthodox families and they have never sucked the blood. Only sick extremist crazy Jews do it. Not normal people. And the crazy Jews who do it should be arrested
Raanan
It is grossly misleading to state that Baal Metzitza is the cause of these children’s deaths. (11 in 10 years). There is no proof that this was the case! There are many other things they could have died from. Rambam writes that this is done for refuah. As such, it cannot be a problem.
Babies do not have well developed systems to begin with. They get sick all the time from many things. There were no autopsies done to determine that this was the cause. Hepititis can be gotten in a multitude of ways. Kids bring it home all the time.
There are many things a child could contract that have nothing to do with the bris or baal metziza. The articles premises are rediculous and are another example of Jew baiting to make illegal Jewish practices.
Raanan Isseroff – Crown Hts