Posted by Phillip Kyle on 09/01/05 23:18

Alan Holmes <alan.holmes@virgin.net> verbally sodomised in
news:ZUFRe.8036$t4.3886@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net:

> Jerry wrote in message
> <0HLCEDAD38594.8833680556@anonymous.poster>
>
>>August 26, 2005
>>City Questions Circumcision Ritual After Baby Dies
>>By ANDY NEWMAN
>>A circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews has alarmed city
>>health officials, who say it may have led to three cases of herpes - one
>>of them fatal - in infants. But after months of meetings with Orthodox
>>leaders, city officials have been unable to persuade them to abandon the
>>practice.
>>
>>The city's intervention has angered many Orthodox leaders, and the issue
>>has left the city struggling to balance its mandate to protect public
>>health with the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
>>
>>"This is a very delicate area, so to speak," said Health Commissioner
>>Thomas R. Frieden.
>>
>>The practice is known as oral suction, or in Hebrew, metzitzah b'peh:
>>after removing the foreskin of the penis, the practitioner, or mohel,
>>sucks the blood from the wound to clean it.
>
> I see nothing wrong with this practice.
>
>>It became a health issue after a boy in Staten Island and twins in
>>Brooklyn, circumcised by the same mohel in 2003 and 2004, contracted
>>Type-1 herpes. Most adults carry the disease, which causes the common
>>cold sore, but it can be life-threatening for infants. One of the twins
>>died.
>>
>>Since February, the mohel, Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, 57, has been under
>>court order not to perform the ritual in New York City while the health
>>department is investigating whether he spread the infection to the
>>infants.
>>
>>Pressure from Orthodox leaders on the issue led Mayor Michael R.
>>Bloomberg and health officials to meet with them on Aug. 11. The mayor's
>>comments on his radio program the next day seemed meant to soothe all
>>parties and not upset a group that can be a formidable voting bloc:
>>"We're going to do a study, and make sure that everybody is safe and at
>>the same time, it is not the government's business to tell people how to
>>practice their religion."
>>
>>The health department, after the meeting, reiterated that it did not
>>intend to ban or regulate oral suction. But Dr. Frieden has said that
>>the city is taking this approach partly because any broad rule would be
>>virtually unenforceable. Circumcision generally takes place in private
>>homes.
>>
>>Dr. Frieden said the department regarded herpes transmission via oral
>>suction as "somewhat inevitable to occur as long as this practice
>>continues, if at a very low rate."
>>
>>The use of suction to stop bleeding dates back centuries and is
>>mentioned in the Talmud. The safety of direct oral contact has been
>>questioned since the 19th century, and many Orthodox and nearly all
>>non-Orthodox Jews have abandoned it. Dr. Frieden said he hoped the
>>rabbis would voluntarily switch to suctioning the blood through a tube,
>>an alternative endorsed by the Rabbinical Council of America, the
>>largest group of Orthodox rabbis.
>>
>>But the most traditionalist groups, including many Hasidic sects in New
>>York, consider oral suction integral to God's covenant with the Jews
>>requiring circumcision, and they have no intention of stopping.
>>
>>"The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been
>>practiced for over 5,000 years," said Rabbi David Niederman of the
>>United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after the meeting
>>with the mayor. "We do not change. And we will not change."
>>
>>David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel, an umbrella
>>organization of Orthodox Jews, said that metzitzah b'peh is probably
>>performed more than 2,000 times a year in New York City.
>>
>>The potential risks of oral suction, however, are not confined to
>>Orthodox communities. Dr. Frieden said in March that the health
>>department had fielded several calls from panicked non-Orthodox parents
>>who had hired Hasidic mohels unaware of what their services entailed.
>>
>>Defenders of oral suction say there is no proof that it spreads herpes
>>at all. They say that mohels use antiseptic mouthwash before performing
>>oral suction, and that the known incidence of herpes among infants who
>>have undergone it is minuscule. (The city's health department recorded
>>cases in 1988 and 1998, though doctors in New York, as in most states,
>>are not required to report neonatal herpes.)
>>
>>Dr. Kenneth I. Glassberg, past president of the New York section of the
>>American Urological Association and director of pediatric urology at
>>Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, said that
>>while he found oral suction "personally displeasing," he did not
>>recommend that rabbis stop using it.
>>
>>"If I knew something caused a problem from a medical point of view,"
>>said Dr. Glassberg, whose private practice includes many Hasidic
>>families, "I would recommend against it."
>>
>>But Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a microbiologist and professor of Talmud and
>>medical ethics at Yeshiva University, said that metzitzah b'peh violates
>>Jewish law.
>>
>>"The rule that's above all rules in the Torah is that you cannot expose
>>or accept a risk to health unless there is true justification for it,"
>>said Dr. Tendler, co-author of a 2004 article in the journal Pediatrics
>>that said direct contact posed a serious risk of infection.
>>
>>"Now there have been several cases of herpes in the metro area," he
>>said. "Whether it can be directly associated with this mohel nobody
>>knows. All we're talking about now is presumptive evidence, and on that
>>alone it would be improper according to Jewish law to do oral suction."
>>
>>The inconsistent treatment of Rabbi Fischer himself indicates the
>>confusion metzitzah b'peh has sown among health authorities, who
>>typically regulate circumcisions by doctors but not religious
>>practitioners.
>>
>>In Rockland County, where Rabbi Fischer lives in the Hasidic community
>>of Monsey, he has been barred from performing oral suction. But the
>>state health department retracted a request it had made to Rabbi Fischer
>>to stop the practice. And in New Jersey, where Rabbi Fischer has done
>>some of his 12,000 circumcisions, the health authorities have been
>>silent.
>>
>>Rabbi Fischer's lawyer, Mark J. Kurzmann, said that absent conclusive
>>proof that the rabbi had spread herpes, he should be allowed to continue
>>the practice. Rabbi Fischer said through Mr. Kurzmann that the twin who
>>died and the Staten Island boy both had herpes-like rashes before they
>>were circumcised and were seen by a pediatrician who approved their
>>circumcision. The health department declined to comment on its
>>investigation.
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Pardon

--
Phil Kyle�
Uno
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