COLUMN: Religious practices are not all ethical

Submitted by anthony on Thu, 2012-03-22 17:28

Article here. Excerpt:

'In September 2011, a two-week-old baby boy unnecessarily died. The cause of death: Disseminated Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction. The Orthodox Jewish circumcision process called “metzitzah b’peh” is otherwise known as “oral suction,” or the suctioning of blood from the circumcision wound directly by mouth.

Unfortunately, last year isn’t the first time that this particular rabbi, Yitzchok Fischer, caused the death of a child. The same thing happened in 2004, and that same year three other babies were determined to have contracted herpes from Fischer. While Herpes Simplex Virus 1 is usually harmless in adults and manifests itself only as uncomfortable cold sores, because of the virus’ association with the nervous system, it poses significant health threats to newborns and can result in brain damage, and sometimes, death.

The practice of circumcision is condoned in the Bible and believed by several religious denominations to be one of the most important rituals performed during an individual’s lifetime. But outside of a religious context, oral-penile contact from an adult man to a child is considered pedophilia and is punishable by law.

Because the contact in question occurred within a religious context, Fischer has not been held accountable for the death of the baby boys.

Jerry Schmetterer, the spokesman for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, told The Jewish Week that, “Our Crimes Against Children Bureau is looking into this situation. I would not assume what any possible charges would be.”

I can think of a few possible charges, Mr. Hynes. How about two counts of criminal homicide? Several counts of child molestation? Tortious transmission of an STD by intentional neglect? The behavior of this priest is abominable to any right-minded person, but according to The Jewish Week, the city only filed a legal complaint against Fischer to compel him to stop engaging in the practice after the death of the first baby. Clearly, he did not comply, but instead of being legally prosecuted, the matter was ultimately referred by the city to a “beit din” — a religious tribunal — for review.'

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Comments

... circumcision is not ethical-- period.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2012-03-22 23:38

What that useless piece of garbage is, besides a genital mutilating freak, is a f*cking sicko pedophile. Sucking the genitalia of baby boys? Are you kidding me? Someone should chop his entire d*ck off and shove it down his throat.

And any boy surviving this barbaric procedure, once he is grown up and physically strong enough to overpower his parents, should physically restrain his father and mother, cut off part of his father's penis and his mother's clitoral hood. Why? Because they not only knowingly subjected him to genital mutilation, but subjected him to that perverted pedophile. May the EXACT same thing happen to all parents who mutilate their sons.

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Submitted by napnip on Fri, 2012-03-23 03:40

The man certainly is a sick bastard, who should be locked up for a very long time.

However, I certainly don't agree with nipnap's comment. As horrible as what this man has done is, he never completely removed anyone's sexual organs, so that is going way too far. Making incisions in his penile skin, and having a repulsive, herpes-infected prostitute, suck on said incisions insuring he gets herpes would be more appropriate, in my opinion. Then if he ever tries to perform this procedure again, have him chemically castrated.

The parents each deserve a similar punishment, IMO.

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Submitted by xtrnl on Fri, 2012-03-23 05:06