The Circumcision Debate

A Clash Between Religion And Science In Modern-Day New York

(AP)  For thousands of years, rabbis performed a simple procedure to cleanse the wound during a ritual circumcision: Like outdoorsmen treating a snake bite, they sucked blood from the cut and spit it out.

That age-old procedure is now the subject of a clash between religion and science in modern-day New York.

Prompted by a child's death from an infection, the state Health Department is drawing up its first set of safety guidelines governing the practice, which was abandoned by most Jews long ago but has survived among the ultra-Orthodox in a few Hasidic communities.

Doctors have long been concerned that the procedure — called "metzitzah b'peh" in Hebrew — could spread disease. But their argument became urgent last year when New York City health officials said the practice had given a baby a fatal infection.

The illness was caused by herpes simplex type 1, the common virus in saliva that causes cold sores. Usually harmless to adults, it can be deadly to newborns.

The death was believed to be the first in the United States to be associated with metzitzah b'peh, but the city said it had linked four other herpes infections since 1988 to two mohels, as those who perform ritual circumcisions are called. Two more cases were reported in 2005, including one in which a child suffered brain damage.

Efforts to curtail the practice have met with resistance from some Hasidic leaders, who say the act is commanded by Jewish law. They threatened protests after the city's health commissioner recommended that infants not undergo the procedure.