Three Orthodox rabbis want to cut the city’s new circumcision law down to size.
A lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court says the Health Department cannot legally regulate a controversial Jewish ritual that involves sucking blood from a newborn’s freshly snipped penis.
Mandating warnings about the risks of the procedure violates the rabbis’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion, the suit claims.
Health Commissioner Thomas Farley has said “the written-consent requirement is lawful, appropriate and necessary [because] since 2000, 11 babies have contracted herpes after direct oral suction, and two have died.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that 3,564 New York City babies are circumcised with “oral suction” each year.