In Agreement With City, Court Gives One Month Stay Against Circumcision Informed Consent

A senior United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has reportedly agreed to a one month stay preventing implementation of the new informed consent requirement for metzitzah b'peh, the direct-mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done by hasidic and many haredi mohels after removing a baby's foreskin.

Metziztah b'peh being performed by a Chabad mohel last month in Brooklyn

In Agreement With NYC, Court Gives One Month Stay Against NYC Circumcision Informed Consent
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald, a senior United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has reportedly agreed to a Temporary Stay of Enforcement preventing implementation of New York City's new informed consent requirement for metzitzah b'peh, the direct-mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done by hasidic and many haredi mohels after removing a baby's foreskin.

The Temporary Stay of Enforcement is in effect until November 14th, which is the date of the next hearing in the case.

It was issued after the plaintiffs and the defendants jointly agreed to it. They also jointly agreed to limit the size of court filings in support or opposition to a temporary restraining order. The stay was conditioned on the court accepting an expedited hearing schedule, which the court agreed to. The stay is in force only until the end of the next court hearing, which will deal with the topic of a temporary restraining order. That hearing is scheduled for November 14. (Please see the letter endorsed by the judge that is posted below.)

At least 11 babies have been sickened through metzitzah b'peh over the past 11 years. All required lengthy hospitalization.

One baby survived but was left with severe brain damage.

Two other babies died.

Haredim claim the city's informed requirement requirement is a violation of the First Amendment.

They also claim that metzitzah b'peh is safe – even though all major specialists in the field of pediatric infectious disease and public health say the practice is dangerous.

The haredi lawsuit against the city relies on the lone opinion of one Orthodox infectious disease doctor, Daniel Berman, and on the statistical calculations of Berman's father.

Both men are lone or nearly-lone view among a vast majority of experts – including many much better regarded than the Bermans – who strongly oppose metzitzah b'peh.

In addition, Daniel Berman has repeatedly used deception to support his views.

The US Centers for Disease Control has come out against metzitzah b'peh, finding that babies who have the procedure done are 3.4 times (340%) more likely to contract neonatal herpes than are babies who do not have metzitzah b'peh.

Letter outlining the agreement to temporarily stay execution of the informed consent endorsed by the judge:

Download Endorsed letter setting briefing schedule in haredim v NYC suit 10-2012

Related Posts: Dr. Daniel Berman's Deceptions (a partial list): 1, 2.

[Hat Tip: Burich.]

Comments

[dh]

My little doggie can get a temporary restraining order. This kid above me, baba's bff, could obtain a TRO. The next hearing will be interesting. Tougher standard.

[shoshy]

Shmarya, have you gotten hold of the affidavits on this case?

[A. Nuran]

This will get bounced to the next higher level and then bounced out. There are shelves and shelves of precedent which put the kibosh to their argument that toireh trumps everything.

[Adam Neira]

MBP should be banned. End of story. On small points of principle do empires stand or fall. The Jews will be respected by all if they take principled stands. A regime, building or nation will not stand if the foundations are rotten.

[Adam Neira]

To JRD,

Looks like your keyboard got stuck or an alien has taken over your computer. Anyway, back to the subject. I read recently (VIN 19th Sep.) that Rabbi Moshe Tendler stated that some cases of children with special needs in various communities may have in fact been a result of infection after birth resulting from herpes and other diseases transmitted to newborns by a mohel. But the predisposition to denial of what really happens to children in various communities gets swept under the carpet. This is another reason for banning the practise.

Also some disingenuous people are saying that to raise this issue of informed consent for MBP will lead to non-Jews pushing for a ban on bris altogether. The issues are quite separate and decent people can walk and chew gum at the same time. You can make a valid case for bris milah on many counts, but there are no valid cases for oral to wound MBP that can be mounted when an informed audience is present.

It also seems that some people want this debate to go away, because they are frightened that if this minhag/custom (the practice is not a law described in the Pentateuch out of one of the 613 commandments) reaches the attention of various people, including uninformed Jews and non-Jews the public opprobrium will be great. Thus they think they can hide in the shadows and take advantage of the laziness and distraction of vox populi. I am sure also that some "leaders" of various sects are woried that if this brick is taken from their wall the whole edifice may come tumbling down.

Evil always fears the light of truth.

The NYC Board of Health should stick to their guns, and all concerned people should support the informed consent plan. The rights of children have been neglected since Abraham was a boy, but if Judaism is not about protecting and defending purity and innocence, then what is it about in 2012/5773 ?

[MICHAEL ROLOFF]

Unfortunately it is / has been circumcision that has MADE for no end of anti-semitic sentiments. Freud found that it was the chief reason for unconscious anti-Semitism. And the myths surrounding it are at the core of the “blood libel.” Thus, It's time to eliminate the Brit Milah because if that is the chief reason
for being anti-Semitic or anti-Abrahamic [Islam too practices the rite] then why hang on to this left-over of human sacrifice? that traumatizesthe child, cutting off 5,000 nerves, that is the equivalent of female circumcision in the sense that it eliminates everything but the clitoris,and only serves the UltraOrthodox to maintain their power? After all, reform Judaism sought to eliminate the rite in the 19th century, and Jewish identity depends on being born by a Jewish mother, or converting. Here a link to an archive of the entire German
and then some debate, note especially Michael Wolffsohn's two pieces . Circumcision has been controversial also within Jewry forever.

Making it a taboo to compare male with female sexual mutilation is the great scandal of this debate. In both instances, the most sensitive and most erogenous zone are amputated or severely damaged. In both instances, the main
emphasis is on the cutting of human sexuality and of control. Ma

Die Tabuisierung jeglichen Vergleichs von männlicher mit weiblicher Genitalverstümmelung ist der große Skandal der Debatte. In beiden Fällen wird der empfindsamste und erogenste Teil des menschlichen Körpers amputiert oder schwer beschädigt. In beiden Fällen geht es in erster Linie um die Beschneidung menschlicher Sexualität. AND DONT FORGET THE ARCHIVE!!! http://analytic-comments.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-circumcision-debate-links-and.html

http://evidentist.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/beschneidung-ignoranz-und-sexismus/

http://analytic-comments.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-circumcision-debate-links-and.html

Eine Diskussion ueber das Thema, mit drei Deutschen + einem Amerikanischen Psychologen.

http://analytic-comments.blogspot.com/2012/08/psychotherapeutenyahoogroupsde.html

http://analytic-comments.blogspot.com/2012/10/michael-wolffsohns-foreskin-of-heart.html

http://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/debatte/article108847257/Die-Vorhaut-des-Herzens.html

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/andere-meinung/gastkommentar-zur-beschneidungsdebatte-danke-deutschland/7160872.html

http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name

http://www.roloff.freehosting.net/index.html

Member Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute and Society

--

[Ron Low]

This is just silly. The government can require employers to post "kitchen workers must wash hands before returning to work" in the toilet. It doesn't violate the restaurant owner's right to free speech. S/He could post a contrary opinion right next to it. "Hand washing is over-rated and anti-bacterial soaps can lead to resistant strains dominating."

A rabbi doesn't have to condone the city's view that sucking a baby's bloody genitals might cause an infection, he just has to tell the parents what the city stated and get their acknowledgement.

What kind of coward would grant a stay, prolonging this dangerous practice? WHO?

Are we sure The Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald doesn't have a conflict of interest (culturally circumcising family, perhaps?) that would have warranted that she recuse herself?

[Deremes]

Has any of you who are "concerned" that mbp "kill" babies read the book "Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care" by Dr.Martin Makary?
Boy does he tell horror stories about Bad doctors. Prescription errors. Surgical slips. Medical mistakes injure or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. Why patients are kept in the dark.
Or maybe he "lies" like Dr Berman.
After reading some excerpts it will be normal to sign a consent before entering a hospital,ha Bloomberg?
Check it out in Newsweek magazine.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: Deremes | October 17, 2012 at 11:26 AM

You've long since established that you're not a smart person or an honest person or a caring person.

Are there med errors and sanitation issues in hospitals?

Of course there are.

Do doctors and hospitals sometimes cover them up?

Yes.

But that does not excuse and has nothing to do with haredim intentionally putting infants at risk by sucking their bleeding penises.

Two wrongs do not make a right, and in this case they are not even roughly equivalent.

You're a sick, disgusting person who does nothing but attempt to cover up haredi crime and misbehavior or excuse it.

And, heck – if a few babies die that's okay in your twisted little mind because you're protecting 'Yiddishkeit.'

May you rot in hell.

[Deremes]

Cursing and name calling your great but that didn't take away what i said.
Im also shocked that HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Americans are injured or killed EACH YEAR by medical professions and you call it just "med errors and sanitation issues".
Sometimes cover up? the whole book is about cover up.
Point,advocates who are concerned about American lives should push for a law that every person before entering a hospital should be notified that the risk of amputating a leg or being killed is huge.

[Shmarya]

Cursing and name calling your great but that didn't take away what i said.
Im also shocked that HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Americans are injured or killed EACH YEAR by medical professions and you call it just "med errors and sanitation issues".
Sometimes cover up? the whole book is about cover up.
Point,advocates who are concerned about American lives should push for a law that every person before entering a hospital should be notified that the risk of amputating a leg or being killed is huge.

Posted by: Deremes | October 17, 2012 at 12:19 PM

Idiot.

They ARE med errors. They are "sanitation issues."

Unlike you, I've spend extremely large amounts of time in hospitals and nursing facilities and dealt with hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical professionals.

I know what goes on. I've seen it firsthand and and experienced it firsthand.

What you miss is that those same hospitals and doctors (with very few exceptions) HEAL far more people than they hurt.

And hospitals and doctors do not set out to injure, and they don't keep doing dangerous procedures that do not benefit patients in any way.

But you and your rabbis do exactly that – you persist in sucking the bleeding penises of baby boys even though doing so will infect some of those babies with herpes, sickening most and killing some of them.

But in your sick, twisted and exceedingly small mind, two wrongs – even two wrong that are not in any way equivalent – equal a right, and therefore you and your equally sick and tiny minded rabbis can keep on sucking those bleeding baby penises to your hearts' content.

May you and may your rabbis rot.

[Number's dont lie.]

Shmarya,

As i told you this will be a interesting case,and to those who think the its easy to get a TRO when public health is at risk do more research next time.

The real question is how important religion is and whether or not the government can regulate a religious ritual although they would not regulate a surgery with similar risk factors and insignificant medical benefits.

[dh]

Apparently my little doggie is smarter than you