JERUSALEM: Baby Boy Rushed to the Hospital with Bleeding Complications

Advocates of circumcision often try to trivialize infant circumcision, saying it's "harmless" and "risk-free."

Well, yet another circumcision botch makes the news, this time in Israel. The last one that I know of happened in Pittsburgh, where a rabbi severed a child's entire penis during his bris. Not to mention the recent herpes infection due to metzitzah b'peh in New York.

Keep in mind these are complication cases that make the news; circumcision mishaps are often kept under wraps because there is a conviction to preserve a tradition that is ever under fire. Hospitals themselves may be obscuring these complications.

There is also financial incentive to hide or minimize circumcision complications; circumcision is a widespread practice in the United States. Annually, American doctors circumcise 1.2 million baby boys. At a dollar a pop, that's 1.2 million dollars; infant circumcision can cost anywhere between $100 up to $2,000 each. Therefore American doctors and medical facilities have incentive to hide or minimize complications due to circumcision, Jewish or secular.

Are these complications conscionable, given that infant circumcision is elective, non-medical surgery?

Another Circumcision Death Comes to Light

I've made many posts regarding circumcision death on this blog. I hate writing them. I wish the genital mutilation of children and the deaths that attend it would stop.

I won't write long; I think I've already written enough circumcision death posts this year. Somehow, I don't think it will be the last.

This case happened back in 2008-2009 and is just now coming to light, which should lead the reader to ask, if this one is only just now surfacing, how many others have been buried and just sort of forgotten?

Basically a boy was circumcised, he lost 40% of his blood which was never replenished. His doctors tried to remain cool and calm about it, saying the boy didn't need a blood transfusion, and that he didn't need to be rushed anywhere. They acted as if the boy's condition wasn't any kind of emergency that needed immediate treatment. The boy suffered cardiac arrest while he was being transfered between hospitals by his parents in their car. In the end, the boy ended up completely brain dead due to the little oxygen reaching his brain.

Asked if they would have done anything differently, his doctors say they wouldn't have changed a thing, and still would have reacted the way they did.

"The boy had a pre-existing condition," it could be said.

"He would have died anyway."

Did the doctors test for any potential danger before having done the procedure? (Without medical or clinical indication, how could they even have elicited parental consent?)

Did the doctors act appropriately following this child's complications?

Had they acted differently, would this child have still been alive?

Did the doctors intentionally try to keep this child's case low-key?

Are the doctors acting in complete denial to save their own skins?

Read the whole story and judge for yourself:

Healthy Newborn Dies Post Circumcision Hemorrhage

Death is a risk for circumcision.

We do not know how big of a risk there is, because doctors and mohels tend to attribute circumcision deaths to something else to protect their trade, and medical organizations like the AAP can't be bothered to collect data that would jeopardize their fellows.

How many deaths due to circumcision are "acceptable," especially given the fact that this is elective, medically unnecessary procedure?

Related Posts:
CIRCUMCISION DEATH: Yes, Another One - This Time in Israel

CIRCUMCISION DEATH: Yet Another One (I Hate Writing These)

CIRCUMCISION: The Silent Killer
  

Circumcision KILLS

CIRCUMCISION: Another Baby Dies

NEW YORK: Two More Herpes Babies, One With HIV

Two more baby boys have contracted herpes via ultra-orthodox Jewish practice of metzitzah b'peh, or sucking a newly circumcised child's penis with the mouth.

This time, one tested positive for HIV-1.

The New York City Department of Health deputy commissioner said it was "too early to tell" if the babies would suffer long-term health consequences from the infection.


I'm not sure what else to say.


CORRECTION:
The child in question did NOT contract HIV-1 as reported by Medical Daily. It was a misprint, as the child tested for HSV-1, which is the herpes virus.

The original report can be read here.

The Medical Daily article which has now been corrected can be read here.


This misprint is no excuse to ignore the incident; herpes being deliberately transmitted to children by otherwise intelligent adults is still a problem, and the New York City Health Department needs to stop shirking their responsibilities.


Related Articles:

NEW YORK: Yet Another Herpes Baby

Rabbis Delay NYC's Metzitzah B'Peh Regulations - Meanwhile, in Israel...

New York: Oral Mohel Tests Positive for Herpes

Herpes Circumcision Babies: Another One? Geez!

Mohels Spreading Herpes: New York Looks the Other Way

Circumcision Indicted in Yet Another Death: Rabbis and Mohels are "Upset"

African Prostitutes: "Circumcised Men Take Too Long"

Along with a "60% reduction in HIV transmission," circumcision "researchers" in Africa promise that circumcision "doesn't diminish sex life" for men.

In fact, not only does it not negatively affect men, circumcision boosts sex life for both men and their partners!

Why, their "research" confirms it. And we all know that the more "researchers" promoters quote, (especially if it's "research" they conducted themselves) the truer their statements are.

But as I always say on this blog, there is something wrong with "research" and "findings" that don't correlate with reality.

A random survey was recently conducted amongst sex workers in the Harare red light district, Zimbabwe, by publication Zim Diaspora, which has made some interesting discoveries.

Apparently there are different prices for circumcised vs. intact clients, and circumcised men get charged more.

The reasoning behind this is that circumcised men take longer to orgasm, perhaps due to a diminished sensitivity, as a result of the removal of nerve endings in the foreskin. A longer sex session means less time to spend with other customers, and therefore a loss in potential clientele.

Said one prostitute to Zim Diaspora: "You see the problem with circumcised clients is they take too long to complete a single round. I might risk losing revenue from other clients and waste time on one guy for the same price, so we therefore push our charges upwards if one is circumcised."


According to other sex workers, the price increase can be from 20 to 30 US dollars if the client in circumcised.

Diminished sensation and therefore a longer sex session makes sense, considering research that shows that circumcision removes the most sensitive part of the penis.

According to the Sorrells sensitivity study, which measured different points on the intact and circumcised penis, the foreskin contains the most sensitive parts of the penis, which are more sensitive than the most sensitive parts of the circumcised penis.

In addition, research outside the all-too-famous "African trials" fails to coincide with "researcher" claims that circumcision makes sex great and wonderful.

A Danish study found that "Circumcision was associated with frequent orgasm difficulties in Danish men and with a range of frequent sexual difficulties in women, notably orgasm difficulties, dyspareunia and a sense of incomplete sexual needs fulfilment," for example.

Another recent study from Belgum found that circumcised men reported decreased sexual pleasure and lower orgasm intensity. Coinciding with the Zim Diaspora survey, circumcised men in the Belgian study reported that more effort was needed to achieve orgasm.

Be that as it may, some promoters of circumcision try to market the undeniable decrease in sensitivity as an advantage, because this makes men "last longer" in bed.

Perhaps it is an advantage for those insatiable women who want a long sex session.

This ceases to be an advantage when the sex session lasts a little too long.

The sex begins to hurt, the man becomes frustrated because he is not any closer to climaxing, and the woman wonders to herself when in the world he's going to finish.

This is my own speculation, but it may be in fact, that the men aren't finishing, which could be ironically the reason these men procure the services of a prostitute, and why men are willing to pay the extra price.

Interesting facts:
According to the latest health demographic survey in Zimbabwe, HIV is more prevalent in circumcised men. (The figures were similar - circumcised 16.6%, non-circumcised 14.2% - in 2005, before the circumcision campaign began in 2009.)

Image courtesy of Circumstitions News.

In spite of the fact that circumcision hasn't helped prevent HIV in this, and many other countries, "mass circumcision campaigns" continue in Zimbabwe, and other countries with similar statistics.

Related Posts:

Where Circumcision Doesn't Prevent HIV 

Where Circumcision Doesn't Prevent HIV II