Changes

}}</ref> by a Rabbi Harry Bronstein.<refname="hennessy-fiske2011">{{REFnews

}}</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>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=The Mogen clamp's name derives from the Hebrew word "magain,fiske2011" or shield... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref> 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>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/healthfiske2011" /la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=A user first loosens the foreskin, then pulls it through the clamp and clips it off with a single cut. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref> Some orthodox Jews only recognize circumcisions performed with devices based on the traditional design,<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.comfiske2011" /health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=...some orthodox Jews recognize only circumcisions performed with devices based on the traditional design... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref> and for this reason it is preferred by traditional mohels.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http:fiske2011" //www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=...the clamp is popular with mohels... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref>

The Mogen clamp has a critical design flaw: It does not allow doctors or mohels to see what they are cutting.<ref>{{REFnews |last=Hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=...the Mogen clamp, unlike others, has a critical design flaw: It does not allow doctors or mohels to see what they are cutting. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdatename=2011"hennessy-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> 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>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.comfiske2011" /health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=As far back as August 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a public health notice about the Mogen... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref> after receiving approximately 20 injury reports a year since 1996,<ref>{{REFnews |last=Hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |urlname=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=...after receiving approximately 20 injury reports a year since 1996... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09"hennessy-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> including lacerations, hemorrhaging, penile amputation and urethral damage.<ref>{{REFnews |last=Hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=...including lacerations, hemorrhaging, penile amputation and urethral damage... |datename=2011"hennessy-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> Instead of recalling the devices, the [[FDA]] advised users to make sure they were using the clamps according to manufacturer's specifications.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http:fiske2011" //www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=Instead of recalling the devices, the FDA advised users... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref> 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>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.comfiske2011" /health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=In the 11 years between the FDA warnings and the Hall settlement, the agency has received 21 reports related to Mogen... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref> 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

}}</ref><refname="tagami2010">{{REFnews

Mogen went out of business in July of 2010<ref>{{REFnews |last=Tagami |first=Ty |url=http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=The company is going out of business, according to a woman who answered the phone at its Brooklyn headquarters Monday. |datename=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}<"tagami2010" /ref> after losing a 10.8 million dollar law suit,<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Tagami |first=Ty |url=http://www.ajc.com"tagami2010" /news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=...after an infant lost a portion of his penis during an operation with the Mogen clamp, a judge awarded $10.8 million in damages against the company. |date=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}</ref> after a mohel<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Tagami |first=Ty |url=http:/"tagami2010" /www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=In this case, a New York mohel, or Jewish ritual circumcisor, performed the operation in the baby's home... |date=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}</ref> severed the end of a baby's glans<ref>{{REFnews |last=Tagami |first=Ty |url=http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=The baby in the current case, identified in court documents only as L.G., lost the entire glans, or head, of his penis ... |date=2010-07-19 |accessdatename=2011-04-08}}<"tagami2010" /ref> using one of their clamps. Mogen claimed that injury was impossible with its use.<ref>{{REFnews |last=Tagami |first=Ty |urlname=http://www.ajc.com/news"tagami2010" /nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=The maker of an instrument used in circumcisions claimed that injury was impossible with its use... |date=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}</ref><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>{{REFnews |lastname=Tagami |first=Ty |url=http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world"tagami2010" /atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=Attorney David Llewellyn won a similar case in Atlanta last year and the injury behind that prior lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court put the New York clamp manufacturer on notice about the danger of the device... |date=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}</ref> and they were already in default on a $7.5-million judgment in Massachusetts.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.comfiske2011" /health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=Mogen Circumcision Instruments of New York, already was in default on a $7.5-million judgment in Massachusetts. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}</ref>

In a different case, at South Fulton Medical Center, another law suit was won in 2009.<ref>{{REFnews |last=Tagami |first=Ty |url=http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=Llewellyn won another circumcision case in 2009 over an operation at South Fulton Medical Center. |datename=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}<"tagami2010" /ref> In that case, a child lost a third of his glans, and the plaintifs were awarded 2.3 million dollars.<ref>{{REFnews |last=Tagami |first=Ty |urlname=http:"tagami2010" //www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html |title=Atlanta lawyer wins $11 million lawsuit for family in botched circumcision |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |quote=The jury found that both the pediatrician and the physician who performed the circumcision were negligent, and awarded $2.3 million to the plaintiffs. |date=2010-07-19 |accessdate=2011-04-08}}</ref>

Mogen clamps were made by other manufacturers, including Miltex, which stopped distributing the devices in 1994.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=Miltex, one of several Mogen clamp manufacturers, stopped distributing the devices in 1994. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> Even then, Miltex's then-president Saul Kleinkramer defended the device, placing the blame on "possible mishandling" instead of the design of the device.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=...though no obvious defect has been found with the clamp's design or manufacturing we have concerns over the possible mishandling of the instrument by practitioners... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> Despite having stopped distributing the devices in 1994, some Miltex manufactured Mogen clamps are still in use<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=But some of its devices are still in use. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref>, and Miltex, along with their parent company, Integra Life Sciences Holding Corp., were recently involved (July 2011) in a $4.6-million settlement.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=Miltex Inc. and its parent company, Integra Life Sciences Holding Corp., agreed this summer to a $4.6-million settlement. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> Miltex reached a confidential settlement with a North Hollywood couple for another Mogen-related circumcision botch in 2000.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=In 2000, Miltex reached a confidential settlement with a North Hollywood couple... |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref> In its response to the lawsuit, Integra maintained that the Mogen clamp was safe, carried adequate warnings and users should be held liable for any harm caused.<ref>{{REFnews |lastname=Hennessy"hennessy-Fiske |first=Molly |url=http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926,0,4367816.story |title=Injuries linked to circumcision clamps |publisher=Los Angeles Times |quote=Integra argued that the Mogen clamp was safe, carried adequate warnings and that those who used it should be held responsible for any harm caused. |date=2011-09-26 |accessdate=2011-09-25}}<fiske2011" /ref>