Infant Infected by Herpes
An infant has been infected by the herpes simplex 2 virus due to one of the worlds most shady cultural traditions. This ancient rite continues into the modern day. This is not the first infant victim of Metzitzah B’peh, who has contracted herpes in this way. In this article we look at how readily cultural abuse is normalised.
Ritual Sacrifice Through History
Historically, cultures have performed sacred sacraments and sacrifices such as the removal of the penis and the burning of the cut off member as a fertility ritual. Others involve harvesting the blood from the infant penis and mixing it with the corn and eating it. Some traditional rituals (citing hygiene as justification) continue into the modern day.
One practice involves sucking the bloody wounded penis after a circumcision to staunch the wound. This practice is rare, due to serious hygiene risks by modern standards and extremely blurred lines between child abuse and ritual practice. The vast majority of parents would never entertain the idea of this, yet it is still technically legal.
Although rare, there have been multiple cases involving death by herpes, and the virus is transmitted to infant babies every year. This may disturb and horrify those outside of these religious groups. This week another infant was infected with the potentially deadly virus by an infected mohel.
NEW YORK MOHEL ACCUSED OF INFECTING INFANT WITH HERPES DURING CIRCUMCISION
The continuation of this practice is either down to religious communities not understanding the risks of this ritual, or they acknowledge that this normalised abuse ritual is worth more to them than giving their children a risk free infancy. This is an extreme example; however it mirrors circumcision culture in general.
The psychological and physical difficulties encountered by a small but significant number of men and boys who are subjected to the surgery are predominantly down to cultural ignorance, however some people cling to the practice no matter what the harms associated. Take for example FGM and the resistance found within cultures at changing practice.
This ritual of sucking the penis wound, similar to other types of cultural abuse is normalised within the communities that practice it. No other context permits an adult to orally contact an infant’s genitalia. No other context than circumcision do we slice healthy parts of a baby off. Isn’t it time we embraced the positive aspects of culture, and left the harmful practices in the past?
You can read more about the groups trying to progress beyond this practice here.
Like many men it is a sick horrible act cutting off this valuable body part.