Tabitha M. Powledge, the author of the weekly On Science Blogs published on the website of the National Association of Science Writers, proves herself far braver than I am as she wades into blog posts on metzitzah b’peh, "a Talmud-endorsed form of ritual circumcision practiced among the most orthodox of Orthodox Jews."
In this particular ritual, she writes, "the mohel, after slicing off the foreskin, takes the baby's penis into his mouth along with a sip of wine and sucks blood from the wound."
I'm going to stop right there. Read Powledge for links to blog posts on this subject–posts prompted by regulatory action taken by New York City last week, as Scott Hensley reported at the NPR health blog Shots. The New York City Board of Health worries that the practice can spread possibly lethal herpes infections to infants, according to Hensley.
In other news, Powledge walks us through some of the growing online criticism of the Encode project and the way its results were presented.
-Paul Raeburn
Leave a Reply