In orthodox or conservative Judaism, is there a specific method for disposing of or keeping the foreskin after circumcision?
(I know that in some Arab tribes they’re kept in a special pouch or on the doorpost of the house, while in other cultures they’re buried. My own was disposed of with other bio-waste from the hospital since it was a medical rather than religious snipping.)
Aren’t some infant foreskins kept and sold for use in cosmetics testing?
(At least, I vaguely call the existence of such a UL, only I don’t know if it’s a UL. Technically, I think hospitals might retain the right to use human tissues for whatever purpose they feel like, including financial transactions. There was a major lawsuit a few years ago about cancer cells from a patient being used to create a highly profitable line of “immortal” cells for drug testing.)
The general Jewish custom is to bury it in earth or sand. IIRC, this is done in order to recall G-d’s promise to Abraham - the first (proto-)Jew to undergo circumcision - that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth.
(For my sons’ circumcisions, I brought along a plastic cup with earth in it, and later disposed of the contents in the synagogue’s unpaved backyard. I’ve seen other people who used a flowerpot for this purpose.)
This may be TMI, but I was circumcised when I was 25 (long story). Anyway, I asked the surgeon if I could have it (to make an earring out of, [I was heavily anesthesized]). He said that I wasn’t allowed to have it back. Yeah right, he probably took it and made an earring out of it.
Biologists sometimes use foreskins as a source of several cell types for research, like if they need skin cells or fibroblasts. (My own research uses cells derived from a cancerous breast tumor.) They’re also used to grow skin for grafts for burn victims. These foreskins come from hospitals; at the (many) Orthodox Jewish circumcision ceremonies I’ve been to, I think it’s always been buried.