This news item raises the question, "Exactly what does the mohel do with his mouth to put the baby at risk?"
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Crain's Health Pulse MOHEL RULES
Settling a debate that pitted religious
tradition against public health, the New
York State Department of Health and the
Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA
and Canada have agreed on new protocols
to protect newborns getting Orthodox circumcisions
by mohels. The rabbis must
now wipe their mouths with a sterile alcohol
wipe and wash their hands with soap
and hot water for at least two minutes
before performing the procedure, and must
use a mouthwash for at least 30 seconds
within five minutes of concluding it. The full
agreement is on the DOH Web site. The
controversy began after an infant died in
2004 of herpes contracted from a mohel.
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Not just gay Jews
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Dear Abby:
The Arizona Republic:
Delawareonline
I have reason to believe that a young man in my family may be gay. (He is 15.) I have been thinking a lot about it lately, and have been wondering if circumcision would cure it. What do you think?
Grandmother in Missouri
Homosexuality is not an illness, and therefore there is no need for a "cure." I predict that your family will be happier if you accept your relative exactly the way he is, love him, support him, and stop trying to think of ways to cure him.
P.S. Circumcision is a sacred rite of the Jewish religion. If your theory were valid, then there would be no Jewish homosexuals. And yet, among the successful, gay, Jewish men who are "out" are Harvey Fierstein, Michael Feinstein, Barney Frank and David Geffen -- to name a few. (Oops! And let's not forget Isaac Mizrahi.)
Abby ignores the many millions of circumcised gay gentile Americans. (She also confuses prevention with "cure" - though circumcisioin does neither, of course.)
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One small step ... but it wouldn't have saved David Reimer
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CBC Manitoba
St. B. Hospital cuts circumcisions
Last Updated May 19 2006 03:46 PM CDT
Circumcisions will no longer be performed on newborn boys at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, hospital officials announced Friday.
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Radio Canada
Plus de circoncision sur les nouveaux nés
Mise à jour le samedi 20 mai 2006, 14 h 16 .
L'Hôpital général Saint-Boniface ne procédera plus à des circoncisions sur des nouveaux nés. La direction de l'établissement de santé a pris cette décision après qu'un bébé ait été circoncis sans le consentement de ses parents. |
| These measures would not have protected David Reimer. In 1965, aged seven months, Bruce (as he was called then) and his twin brother Brian were set down for circumcision at St Boniface for "medical reasons". Bruce had his entire penis destroyed, and was raised as a girl (Brenda) until his early adolescence, when he reverted to a male identity. Brian's circumcision was called off after Bruce's disaster, and he recovered without further treatment, underlining the fact that it was unnecessary for either of them. The memory of that tragedy may have helped motivate the hospital's decision. | |
But only for boys ...
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The Herald, Glasgow Children in wait for NHS treatment
HELEN PUTTICK, Health Correspondent
CHILDREN face longer waits for operations because of a massive backlog of
religious circumcisions.
Requests for the procedure represent one in 10 referrals to surgeons at
the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow. Hundreds of
[boy] infants are on a waiting list for the procedure, a rite for Jewish and
Muslim families.
Consultants fear it is becoming near impossible for them to deal with the
workload, saying the queue of 400 would occupy a surgeon for a year.
There is also concern that, if the hospital abandoned the procedure, it
would be done in the community by people without medical training. Every
year Yorkhill is said to treat a handful of infants [some of them girls] suffering
complications after circumcisions which have been performed outside the
hospital. [ - yet there is no suggestion that girls be circumcised in hospital]
Peter Raine, who retired as a general paediatric surgeon from Yorkhill
hospital a week ago, said: "Most of us are a bit concerned that we are
being less than totally clear about what we are doing. We are saying,
'Yes, we will put you on a waiting list', but thinking it can never be
done.
"We are agreeing to something that we cannot see ourselves doing. That is
quite serious. We might be storing up quite a lot of bad feeling there."
...
Religious circumcisions are one of a number of non-urgent procedures
excluded from waiting time guarantees but this system is being scrapped
from the end of next year. By then, the Scottish Executive expects waiting
times for all procedures to be cut to 18 weeks.
Mr Raine said: "There are so many of these (religious circumcision) cases
that we would be perpetually dealing with those at the expense of
medically driven cases. There is no alternative if circumcision cases are
not given some sort of exclusion."
Surgeons based at Yorkhill have written to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
about the issue and are said to be frustrated at the lack of response.
Mr Raine said the paediatric surgeons did not want to encourage anyone
else to do the operation. He said: "We see a handful a year where the
circumcision has been done outside the hospital and the child turns up
with an infection or bleeding or an unsatisfactory result. There are
people whose lives have been ruined by having a badly done circumcision in
childhood."
...
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "This procedure is a
matter of low clinical priority.
"However, circumcisions are still being carried out and we have increased
capacity at Yorkhill to ensure any [boy] child waiting for this procedure will
receive treatment by December 2006."
While members of the Jewish community believe that the procedure should be
carried out shortly after birth, the Muslim community is less strict about
this.
[They wouldn't dream of capitulating to irrationality like this if the children were girls. Why are boys not equal?]
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Yet we can have anyone lopping off a foreskin ...
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FOXNEWS.COM 3 N.C. Men Charged With Performing Castrations in Sadomasochistic 'Dungeon'
Friday, March 31, 2006 CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Three men have been arrested on charges of performing castrations on apparently willing participants in a sadomasochistic "dungeon" in a rural house, authorities said Friday.
"It's extremely bizarre," District Attorney Michael Bonfoey said in a telephone interview. "It's incredible the amount of ways that people can find to run afoul of the law."
Sheriff's investigators said Richard Sciara, 61, Danny Reeves, 49, and Michael Mendez, 60, admitted performing at least eight surgeries, including castrations and testicle replacements, on six consenting clients over the past year. None of the three is licensed to practice medicine, officials said.
... Each man faces 10 felony counts — five each of castration without malice and conspiracy to commit castration without malice — as well as eight misdemeanor counts of performing medical acts without a license. Each felony carries a maximum three years and three months in prison, Bonfoey said.
"Assuming that the victims consented to this — and we don't know that for sure yet — that doesn't make it a defense," Bonfoey said. "We can't have people who are not medical doctors lopping off limbs and other body parts."
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