Today is a big day for Bloomberg's Board of Health. Not only is there that soda ban to reveal and approve but there is also the pesky issue of circumcision consent forms to consider. Yup, just in time for the Jewish New Year next week some Orthodox parts of our local Jewish population are getting all worked up over their mohel's right to snip and suck infant penis without necessarily mentioning possible health risks to the wee one's parents.
Somehow you've missed our exhaustive coverage of what some consider an attack on religious freedom? Well, let's have a quick recap then! Though it is not necessarily required by Jewish tradition, the practice of 'metzitzah b'peh'—in which a mohel sucks the blood off and drips wine on an infant's just circumcised penis—is still common in some Orthodox corners of Judaism. The city estimates that metzitzah b’peh is used in some 3,600 local circumcisions each year. And, after at least 11 boys contracted herpes from the procedure in the past 12 years (at least two fatally), that makes the city nervous.
But nobody (in the States) is talking about banning circumcision! What the Board of Health is voting on today is simply asking that parents sign a consent form when their children undergo the ritual so that they know what is going on (and don't get upset later). Because they don't always! As the Times discovered this week when talking to a woman after she carried her grandson to be cut. She had no idea, despite having four sons! Why didn't she know about the mouth-to-genital contact? "I never watch it, I’m scared to watch it," she told the paper regarding the ritual. "I don’t know what they are doing there."
Still, many seem to see the consent form as an affront on their religious freedom rather than a common sense health move. If the consent form regulation passes today, some ultra Orthodox leaders have promised to sue the city over it.
