Latest Breaking News
Showing Original Post only (View all)Judge won't block New York City circumcision law [View all]
Last edited Sat Jan 12, 2013, 08:17 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Reuters
Judge won't block New York City circumcision law
Fri Jan 11 04:03:48 UTC 2013
By Jonathan Stempel
snip
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Manhattan federal judge refused to block a New York City regulation requiring people who perform circumcisions and use their mouths to draw away blood from the wound on a baby's penis to first obtain written consent from the parents.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Thursday refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the change to the city's health code, which some members of the city's Orthodox Jewish communities called an unwarranted government intrusion on religious freedom.
In September, the New York City Board of Health voted to require mohels, who perform circumcisions, to obtain advance consent that tells parents about the risk of a potentially fatal herpes infection linked to the ritual of metzitzah b'peh, or MBP, involving direct oral suction of the penis. Enforcement of the regulation was put on hold until Buchwald could rule on the request by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada, the International Bris Association and some rabbis for a preliminary injunction. New York City said it plans to begin enforcing the consent requirement even if litigation continues.
City health officials on Thursday said at least 11 infant boys have in the last several years contracted a potentially fatal form of herpes following circumcision with direct oral suction, and that two of the boys died. Opponents of the regulation have said the health department had not proven a higher incidence of neonatal herpes among boys who had received direct oral suction.
The case is Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada et al v. New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-07590.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013 All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/11/us-usa-newyork-circumcision-idUSBRE90A00N20130111
I am appalled that this is considered religious!