Child Survives ~ Second Case of Year Linked to Metzitzah B'Peh
ED Noor: The following two articles and links come from a Jewish publication.
Previously Snippits and Snappits has done extensive posting on the unnecessary
practice of circumcision (of both genders).
In the past babies have died so this is not news. What is interesting is
that such news does not reach the general mainstream and such reporting can
only be found within Jewish publications.
It is astonishing to think that parents of a child so infected will not
prosecute the rabbis involved and Jewish support of any hospital that would
report such things would dry up immediately.
It is also astonishing to think that the parents could be charged as well
as the rabbi although by consenting to this rite they are certainly complicit.
But what is finally most amazing is the common belief that all Jews,
however guilty of whatever crime, must be protected from gentile justice in
case he ends up in a jail cell with a “black Muslim who wants to kill all the
Jews.”
By Seth Berkman
April 03, 2013.
A
New York City infant was recently infected with herpes after undergoing a
controversial circumcision rite, but survived, health officials said.
The
baby contracted herpes simplex virus type 1 after undergoing the rite known as
metzitzah b’peh. This is the second confirmed case this year by the New York
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The
infant survived after developing a fever and vesicular lesions on its scrotum
in the weeks after circumcision. HSV-1 was isolated from the lesions. Metzitzah
b’peh is still practiced by some ultra-Orthodox mohels where the blood is
orally sucked away after the cutting of the foreskin.
Though not serious for adults, it can be fatal for infants, causing permanent cognitive and physical damage or even death.
In January, the DOHMH began requiring that
parents sign an informed consent waiver to allow metzitzah b’peh to be
performed.
The
DOHMH said no form was submitted for the procedure. Despite the apparent
violation, the agency said it has no plans to pursue a legal case against the
parents.
There
have been 13 confirmed cases by the DOHMH since 2000. Last month, Rabbi Hershel
Schachter, prone to making controversial statements, said
that local hospitals underreport the number of neonatal
herpes infections from metzitzah b’peh.
ARE NEW YORK
HOSPITALS HIDING HERPES FROM METZITZAH B'PEH CIRCUMCISION RITE?
REFUSE TO
RESPOND TO CLAIMS MADE BY YESHIVA U. RABBI
By Seth Berkman
April 01, 2013.
Are some New York City
hospitals and the city’s Department of Health suppressing disclosure of cases
in which a dangerous herpes virus is being transmitted by mohels to newborns?
Representatives from New York
Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center refused to respond to
this allegation ~ made specifically about their own hospital ~ by a senior
rabbinic authority at Yeshiva University recently. The city’s Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene also declined to respond to the charge despite
multiple requests.
As his source for the
allegation, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, the influential YU rabbinical leader who
made the charge publicly, cited his own daughter who, he said, works as a nurse
at New York Presbyterian.
In a public lecture last February in London,
Schachter, who is a rosh yeshiva, or senior chief rabbinic authority, at Y.U.’s
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, claimed that his daughter’s hospital
treated three cases per year of Hasidic babies infected with herpes.
The infections were
“obviously because of metzitzah b’peh,” Schachter told his audience. The
remarks were first posted March 14 on the website Failed Messiah.
The Hebrew term metzitzah
b’peh, often shortened to MBP, refers to a procedure practiced by some
ultra-Orthodox mohels as part of a male infant’s circumcision rite in which the
mohel orally sucks the blood away from the infant’s genital area after cutting
away his foreskin. The practice can infect newborns with Herpes Simplex Virus
Type 1, according to medical authorities, a virus that, while not serious for
adults, can be fatal for infants, or cause permanent cognitive or physical
harm.
"Isador gets his first 10% cut."
Since 2004, the New York City
Department Of Health And Mental Hygiene has reported 12 cases, with two deaths.
Schachter cited his daughter as claiming that there are, in fact, about 15 such
cases per year in the city, including the three cases or so she claimed per
year at her own hospital.
Schachter said his daughter explained that the hospitals do not report these cases because Hasidic clients would not return if they were made public.
Mohels from outside the
ultra-Orthodox community use a sterile pipette for this purpose. But many
ultra-Orthodox mohels consider direct suction of the genital area by mouth to
be mandated by the Talmud as part of the religious rite.
In contrast to New York
Presbyterian and the New York City Department of Health, Maimonides Hospital in
Brooklyn, which has perhaps the largest clientele of Orthodox patients in the
city, strongly denied Schachter’s allegation.
Eileen Tynion, assistant vice
president, public relations for Maimonides, wrote in an email that, “Like all
hospitals, Maimonides is required to report cases of infant herpes to the DOH,
and we remain in compliance at all times with that requirement.” In September
2011, a two-week old boy died at Maimonides after contracting herpes following
MBP, according to the city medical examiner.
Efforts to reach Schachter
and his daughter were unsuccessful.
The ultra-Orthodox umbrella
group Agudath Israel of America, which has filed a lawsuit against the city’s
effort to regulate MBP, also declined to comment on Schachter’s allegations.
Schachter’s remarks on the
issue were part of a broader talk he gave to an audience
of British rabbis that has sparked intense controversy.
During the lecture,
Schachter also said that allegations of child sexual abuse within the Orthodox
community should not be directly reported to law enforcement authorities;
instead, he said, they should first be brought before a special panel of Torah
scholars who are also psychologists to determine their validity.
He voiced caution about
sending cases to law authorities because such action could result in a Jew
being sent to a state prison, where he could be locked up “with a shvartze, in
a cell with a Muslim, a black Muslim who wants to kill all the Jews.”
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