The Ethics of Sucking Blood from Private Parts

Forward Newspaper reports on the "harassment campaign" against prominent Orthodox rabbi and medical ethicist Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a bioethics expert and Talmud instructor at Yeshiva University, who

was criticized by ultra-Orthodox leaders and newspapers after he was quoted in the press as saying that the practice of metzitzah b'peh, or oral suction of the circumcision wound, should be conducted with a sterile tube. In many ultra-Orthodox circles, especially within certain Hasidic sects, the ritual is performed by having the mohel suck blood from the wound with his lips directly on the baby's penis.

Tendler spoke out against the practice following reports last month that a Jewish infant had died of herpes and that several other babies had contracted the virus after being circumcised by mohel Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, who practiced direct oral suction. Tendler co-authored an article in the August 2004 issue of the medical journal Pediatrics, which asserted that the risks of herpes infection should outweigh any ritual benefits of using direct oral suction.

In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox newspapers have condemned Tendler and accused him of reporting Fisher to health officials — a claim that Tendler vehemently denies.