Norway Wants To Ban Brit Milah

Daphne Anson writes about the latest attempt to ban circumcision in Norway:

Norway, already ignominious for the amount of antisemitism rife, invites suspicions of a gratuitous offensive against one of the ancient rites of Judaism with the proposed legal amendment at the urging of the State Ombudsman for Children that the ritual circumcision of children below the age of fifteen be banned.

There seems to be an overall ignorance--or disregard--of the importance of circumcision, Brit Milah, in Judaism For instance, Anson quotes Professor Trond Markestad, head of the Norwegian Medical Association's ethics committee, who just doesn't get it:

“I urge the Jewish and Muslim communities to find an alternative religious ceremony.”

Makestead also makes a blanket statement about the medical aspect of circumcision:

“It’s against important medical ethics and is unnecessary. There’s no medical reason for having it done, it’s painful for some days afterwards, and there’s a possibility of complications,

Actually, research indicates there are real medical benefits. Not that it would have a bearing on Brit Milah per se, but it does make one wary of the motivations of those in the medical profession who speak out against circumcision in absolute terms.

Scientific American had an article about the health benefits of circumcision in January of last year:

Clean-Cut: Study Finds Circumcision Helps Prevent HIV and Other Infections
The first microbiome study of the penis offers some clues as to why removing foreskin cuts the risk of HIV infection in circumcised men

The World Health Organization declared three years ago that circumcision should be part of any strategy to prevent HIV infection in men. The organization based its recommendation on three randomized clinical trials in Africa that found the incidence of HIV was 60 percent lower in men who were circumcised. Although this "research evidence is compelling," wrote the WHO panel assigned to the topic, there was little evidence explaining how circumcision might reduce a man's risk of acquiring HIV.

Now comes an answer in a new study, published in the January 6 issue of PLoS ONE, which found that there are gross changes in the penis's microbiome following circumcision, suggesting that shifts in the bacterial environment could account, in part, for the differences in HIV infection. Families of anaerobic bacteria, which are unable to grow in the presence of oxygen, are abundant before circumcision but nearly disappear after the procedure. The researchers suspect that in uncircumcised men, these bacteria may provoke inflammation in the genitalia, thereby improving the chances that immune cells will be in the vicinity for HIV viruses to infect.

...In any case, changes that occur to the penis microbiome following circumcision could hamper the transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases. Similar to HIV reduction, Gray's clinical trial in Uganda found that the incidence of genital herpes and human papillomavirus were about 27 and 35 percent lower, respectively, in circumcised men.

Moreover, the current study found that two of the most abundant anaerobic organisms present on uncircumcised penises, Clostridiales and Prevotellaceae, have been associated with bacterial vaginosis, an uncomfortable condition in which the vagina's bacterial balance is upset. This finding could help explain why there are reduced rates of bacterial vaginosis in the wives of circumcised men, Gray says. He adds that the microbiome study will help doctors understand the extent of the potential health benefits of circumcision.

Bottom line, in trying to ban Brit Milah, Norway is following in the footsteps of the Greeks, the Romans, the Nazis and Communist Russia who all tried to ban Brit Milah as well.

Technorati Tag: Circumcision and Brit Milah.