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Jewish circumcision

374 bytes added, 13:07, 13 November 2019
Add reference to Holt 1913 paper.
''Metzitzah b'peh'' (a word that means "sucking" in Hebrew) is a third stage of a traditional Jewish circumcision, although nowadays it is perfomed by only a few rigorously Orthodox mohels. In this stage, the mohel sucks on the bleeding penis of the infant with his mouth; this is claimed to reduce bleeding, though the origin and initial significance of this practice is unclear.
In the recent past(1913), it was realized that some mohels were transmitting tuberculosis and syphilis by oral contact with freshly wounded penises, <ref>{{REFjournal |last=Holt |first=L. Emmet |author-link= |etal=no |title=Tuberculosis acquired through ritual circumcision |trans-title= |language= |journal=JAMA |location= |date=1913-07-12 |volume=LXI |issue= |pages=99-102 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/complications/holt1/ |quote= |pubmedID= |pubmedCID= |DOI= |accessdate=2019-11-13}}</ref> so a modified version of metzitzah b'peh has been introduced, where mohels suck blood through a glass tube, in order to avoid direct contact with the penis.
In 2005, [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/nyregion/26circumcise.html?_r=2 a mohel in New York] was found to have infected three newborns with herpes via metzitzah b'peh, one of whom subsequently died. The Health Commissioner of the day, Thomas R. Frieden, basically pardoned Yitzchok Fischer, the mohel in question, and no further action was to be done regarding getting Orthodox leaders to abandon metzitzah b'peh. Frieden's open letter to the Jewish community can be read [http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/std/std-bris-commishletter.pdf here].
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