“On March 3, 2012, the New York Daily News reported the death this past September of a two-week-old baby boy, following an ultra-Orthodox Jewish circumcision ritual. The report came after the newspaper pressed Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn for information, evidently having heard about the death from other sources. The New York City Medical Examiner\u2019s office is quoted as listing the cause of death as \u201cdisseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because some of my readers may not be aware of the ritual, known as metzizah b\u2019peh, I will describe it. Following the \u201cusual\u201d steps involved in a circumcision (i.e., stroking the baby\u2019s penis to make it erect, stripping the foreskin from the head of the penis, and cutting the foreskin off), in metzizah b\u2019peh the mohel (ritual circumciser) then \u201cremoves blood from the wound with his mouth\u201d (this is the news media\u2019s description; in other words, the mohel sucks the baby\u2019s bloody penis). It was this final insult added to injury that caused the death of the poor baby boy in question.<\/p>\n
Absent the excuse of religion, this entire event would be classified as assault and battery as well as child sexual abuse, and if the baby were to die as a result, the perpetrator could be prosecuted for criminally negligent homicide.”<\/p>\n