BMJ  2006;332:137 (21 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7534.137

News

Ultra-Orthodox Jews criticised over circumcision practice

Janice Hopkins Tanne

New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Representatives from the New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and representatives of ultra-Orthodox Jews are meeting this week to try to resolve a controversy over an ancient circumcision practice called metzitzah b'peh ("suction by mouth").

The health department says the practice led to the death of one newborn boy from herpes simplex type 1 and caused brain damage in another. Seven cases of herpes have been linked to the practice since 1998. Three of the five recent cases were traced to one practitioner (called a mohel).

In metzitzah b'peh, the practitioner removes the baby's foreskin and then sucks blood from the wound to clean it. The practice is used only by a section of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Doctors who favour and those who oppose the custom will meet with the health department and herpes experts.

New York's health commissioner, Dr Thomas Frieden, told the BMJ, . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

A Surgical Temptation: The Demonisation of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain
Stefan Bailis and Daniel Halperin
BMJ 2006 332: 183. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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The glass tube
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