Rabbi May Have Given Babies Herpes

[Bark Bark Bark]

Oh, this is SO sad and SO nasty.

http://my.netscape.com/corewidgets/news/story.psp?cat=50200&id=2005020205390001863233

NEW YORK (AP) - City health officials are investigating the death of a baby boy who was one of three infants to contract herpes after a rabbi circumcised them.

Ten days after Rabbi Yitzhok Fischer performed religious circumcisions on twins last October, one died of herpes and the other tested positive for the virus, according to complaint filed by the health department in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The complaint, reported in Wednesday's edition of the New York Daily News, also said health officials later found a third baby who had contracted herpes after being circumcised by Fischer in late 2003.

Under Jewish law, a mohel - someone who performs circumcisions - draws blood from the circumcision wound. Most mohels do it by hand, but Fischer uses a rare practice where he uses his mouth.

[thebigidea]

1. ahgggggggggggggggggg!

"Most mohels do it by hand, but Fischer uses a rare practice where he uses his mouth."

that's an image I did not need planted in my brain before breakfast.

Hell, I didn't even know there was a rare circumcision practice using your teeth... surely borscht belt comedians could've made a living telling jokes about it. Where's Eddie Cantor when you need him?

[rfranklin]

2. That is so perverted....

How could any parent tolerate that?

[DalvaThree]

3. I didn't know herpes was ever fatal

I know it's not fatal in adults.

[LosinIt]

9. Herpes can be fatal to newborns,

that's why mothers w/herpes need to be monitored as delivery time nears. If they have a lesion at the time of delivery, then they deliver via caesarean section to eliminate the risk of the baby contracting the infection from the birth canal.

[SweetLeftFoot]

4. Abuse

all circumcision, whether male or female, is abuse, religious mumbo jumbo included.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Sick....

I'm glad my parents used a physician...

[acmavm]

6. What they hell do they mean by rare practice? Sick and perverted is

more like it. Don't ever tell me that there's a valid religious reason for this one because I'm not that stupid.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I Never Heard Of That...

Somebody made that shit up....

[SheilaT]

11. Trust me, no one is making it up.

I've read about this on occasion when reading about the many different ways circumcision is done. I haven't bothered to search google for a link. Go ahead and try on your own if you care, but yes, that's something some rabbis do. Makes you wonder a lot about the rabbis who do.

Makes you wonder even more about religious mumbo-jumbo and the unwillingness of religious believers to use the brain god gave them to think rationally, doesn't it?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. Don't Know...

I just know my parents used a physician...

[MercutioATC]

13. It's NOT made up. Unfortunately, it's real (link provided):

"Metzitzeh: (Mezzizza/Mizizah) The sucking of blood from the wound
During the Talmudic period (500-625 A.D.), a third step was added to the Orthodox circumcision ritual. It was not universally adopted by all Jewish groups, but became a practice of the more Orthodox groups. This third step was called "Metzitzah". During "Metzitzah", the mohel takes the now badly bleeding penis into his mouth and sucks the blood from the wounded pant. This was most probably adopted to collapse the major blood vessels to stem bleeding and to extract any induced bacteria from the wound and blood system. In effect, it often introduced infection, such as tuberculosis and venereal diseases, with very serious and tragic consequence, as reported throughout history. More modern day mohels use a glass tube placed over the infant's penis for suction of the blood when performing metzitzah. In many Jewish ritual circumcisions this step of Metzitzah has been eliminated."

http://www.cirp.org/library/history/peron2/


Isn't the Internet wonderful? You can learn all sorts of things you never wanted to know...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I Don't Know...

I come from a secular Jewish family...


I'm glad it was a doctor and not a rabbi who performed the circumcision...

[Enraged_Ape]

23. Now, THAT is just fucked up in too many ways

I always love to start my day with a hearty :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke::puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: . I am now more convinced than ever that humans are historically loathsome and that God hates us all.

[wicket]

8. Effing sick

:grr:

[Ian David]

10. The article spelled his name wrong: Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer

And his webpage crashed my Mozilla browser.

Bris-Milah.com - Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer
... For further details please call Rabbi Y. Aaron Fischer CERTIFIED MOHEL. Telephone
1(800) FOR-BRIS

----

I think I know a relative of this guy. If so, it would explain a lot.

Pictured below:
A Rabbi performs a circumcision on an extra-terrestrial at Area 51:

[SouthernDem2004]

14. Are you guys against plastic surgery also?

I guess you can try the argument that if an adult chooses to have plastic surgery done then it is ok although I do not see the difference. What about a child born with a mild birth defect? No sugery to correct?

I think this goes along similar lines as a right to choose. It is not your right. That being said you are entitled to your opinion and fortunately we are still in a semi-free country and you can choose not to have it done to your children.

[Bark Bark Bark]

15. Hang On There Sparky

Read the posts. No one's bashing circumcision, although it's a debatable procedure. What's grossing us all out is the method. And I didn't even have the details on THAT; MercutioATC confirmed my worst fears.

Edit: Okay, yeah, SweetLeftFoot knocked circumcision. But what makes this so unbelievable is the use of the mouth on an infant's genitals AND an infant's surgical wound. Astonishing.

[SouthernDem2004]

21. No problem skippy :)

Ok, I agree the mouth thing is disturbing.

[Cooley Hurd]

17. Huh?

:crazy:

Quick... call a cop...;)

[Ms. Toad]

22. A concern I have with your reasoning is that

it is not the person being circumcised that is making the choice.

When I was pregnant I decided not to have it done for my child, if my child was male - mainly because of the medical reasons against it (body parts are generally put there for a reason), and because of the experiences of some of my male circumcised friends who resented the fact that the choice was made for them by their parents.

Although the surgery is not terribly pleasant, it is possible to delay the decision into adulthood and to permit the person whose body it is to make the decision (my grandfather was circumcised in his 60s).

That said, I wouldn't put deciding for your child whether he should be circumcised in either extreme category of classifying it (1) as correcting a birth defect (the foreskin is not a birth defect) or (2) as child abuse (it is relatively minor surgery, and there are valid cultural reasons to have it done (looking like father, or religion being the two most common ones)). It is more like plastic surgery - a decision we generally do not permit one person to make for another, which brings me back to a concern I have with your reasoning.

[Danmel]

18. My son was circumcised by a Mohel

And he most definitely did NOT suck the blood. Ewww. That is just wrong and it is NOT mainstream Jewish custom. Those poor kids. I can't imagine what the Mohel was thinking, I really can't.

It sort of surprises me that that would be a Jewish custom anyway, considering that eating blood is prohinited under Kosher laws. You have to soak and salt meat to draw out the blood, you can't eat an egg if it has any blood in it, liver has to be broiled to eliminate blood. Personally (and I am not particularly observant and there is a lot I don't know), it strikes me as a fringe kind of thing.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. I'm Glad A Doctor Did Mine

eom

[King Coal]

20. They were talking about this on Imus.

Sid bashed the Pope a little, and then the bald guy talked about this. I didn't imagine it was true at the time. Unbelievable.