Mogen: Difference between revisions

}}</ref> The Mogen clamp's name derives from the Hebrew word "magain," or shield, and it was invented in an effort to standardize circumcision equipment then in use by both doctors and mohels without medical training who perform the procedure in private homes and other locations.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> The device is designed to "shield" the glans, as the name implies, while the mohel slices off the [[foreskin]]. A user must first rip the foreskin from the glans, then pull it through the clamp and slices it off with a single motion.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> Some orthodox Jews only recognize circumcisions performed with devices based on the traditional design,<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> and for this reason it is preferred by traditional mohels.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" />

The Mogen clamp has a critical design flaw: It does not allow doctors or mohels to see what they are cutting.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> As far back as August 2000, the [[FDA|U.S. Food and Drug Administration]] issued a public health notice about the Mogen and [[Gomco]] clamps<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> after receiving approximately 20 injury reports a year since 1996,<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> including lacerations, hemorrhaging, penile amputation and urethral damage.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> Instead of recalling the devices, the [[FDA]] advised users to make sure they were using the clamps according to manufacturer's specifications.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> In the 11 years following the FDA warnings, the agency had received 21 reports related to Mogen clamps, all but one of which involved injuries.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" /> Mogen continued to publish in its instructional brochure that "no injury to the glans is possible, even after other glans amputations were reported.<ref name='Law.com 2010-07-29'>{{REFnews

  |quote=She noted an instructional brochure accompanying the Mogel clamp stating that "no injury to glans is possible," even though other amputations had been reported.

}}</ref> Full or partial glans amputations have been reported for the Mogen clamp, even among experienced conductors of circumcision.<ref name='Journal of Perinatology April/May 2002'>{{REFjournal

  |first=H William

  |last2=Martinez

  |last3=Partridge

  |last4=Sniderman

  |last5=Armstrong-Wells

  |last6=Fuentes-Afflick

  |url=http://www.nature.com/jp/journal/v22/n3/full/7210653a.html

  |accessdate=2011-04-08

Mogen went out of business in July of 2010<ref name="tagami2010" /> after losing a 10.8 million dollar law suit,<ref name="tagami2010" /> after a mohel<ref name="tagami2010" /> severed the end of a baby's glans<ref name="tagami2010" /> using one of their clamps. Mogen claimed that injury was impossible with its use.<ref name="tagami2010" /><ref name='Law.com 2010-07-29'>{{REFnews

}}</ref> The injury behind a prior lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court had already put Mogen on notice about the danger of the device,<ref name="tagami2010" /> and they were already in default on a $7.5-million judgment in Massachusetts.<ref name="hennessy-fiske2011" />

Despite going out of business in America, and despite its notoriety for glans amputations, Mogen clamps are being used in a pilot project to have male children circumcised at birth under the pretext of HIV prevention.<ref name='Capital News 2010-09'>{{REFnews

[[Category:Circumcision products]]