Is it possible that in the times of Chazal the Herpes virus was less prevalent in society? Why can’t MBP be healthy unless the mohel has Herpes?
PBA, you said: “If the mohel holds it is required min hadin, he should obviously not ask. If the mohel holds it is not required, then maybe he should. . . . And if they are idiots, then I don’t care anyway.”
What if the Mohel holds it’s required, yet is reasonably certain that the parents wouldn’t consent if they knew. Shouldn’t the Mohel recuse himself at that point? Perhaps mohelim should be breaking into homes to perform milah with MBP on children who otherwise wouldn’t receive it. After all, it’s a chiyuv.
IMHO, a Mohel who goes deliberately against the parents wishes and hurts the child deserves to be locked up for the sake of society. He’s a deliberate idiot, which is far worse than an uninformed idiot.
As far as scientific proof of incidence, all the studies are misleading. The question is whether MBP makes THIS CHILD more likely to get herpes. The answer is, obviously, yes. Next question, how much more likely? Answer: who knows? Any chance of knowing would depend on voluntary participation in an unbiased study. Good luck with that.
Lastly, I’m mostly with PBA on point 3. However, the scope of the reg here makes this gov interference with religion a little more palatable. No one is stopping anyone from doing anything they want to do, as long as they are informed of the potential human sacrifice.
What I don’t like is the dismissive attitude the government has shown for the importance of religion. What bothers me most is that the DOH recommends not to do it, as opposed to informing people of the risks of this important practice (to those that believe it as such).
Bottom line: the risk is real, but may not be as high as the government is saying, and genuine religion may say to do it anyway. The DOH, Savage, and the general public should respect the last part the most.