Some religious practices need to go

There is debate in New York City over metzitzah b’peh, an ancient practice common in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in which the person circumcising a baby uses his mouth to suck blood from the wound.

Since September, New York City health officials, noting that 12 cases of herpes simplex virus have most likely resulted from the procedure since 2000, have required parents to fill out a consent form that acknowledges they are aware of the risks. Orthodox groups have shrugged off the risks and sued the city to block the consent requirement, but a federal judge ruled in January that the city may temporarily proceed.

The most surprising aspect of this story is that the debate centers on the requirement of a consent form and not on the practice itself.

I may not be a religious person, but I have always been an advocate of religious freedom as long as it doesn’t interfere with the religious freedom of another, but some religious practices, regardless of how ancient or steeped in tradition they may be, must go.

This is one.

One might be inclined to say that in the year 2013, men should not be sucking the blood from infant penises with their mouths, but I don’t think this practice was ever okay. I don’t think metzitzah b’peh was okay last year or a decade ago or in the year 356 AD.

How it has managed to last this long is beyond my imagination.

Many religious practices have been dispensed with over the years because they were recognized as barbaric. We’ve eliminated crucifixion from our daily lives. We no longer stone adulterers to death. We no longer permit slavery. We have stopped burning women suspected of witchcraft.

It seems to me that sucking of the penis of a baby boy following circumcision might fit well into this list, even if the danger of herpes transmission is eliminated. 

What’s wrong with a little gauze? A Band-Aid perhaps? Maybe even a little antibiotic cream?

Does the ultra orthodox Jewish community really believe that God would frown upon a world in which a man cannot suck the blood from a baby’s penis?