After a bris, the foreskin is traditionally buried in soil or sand. This is the most common practice among observant Jewish families, rooted in mystical and symbolic teachings that go back centuries. But the answer gets more interesting when you look at what happens to foreskin tissue removed in hospital circumcisions, where the tissue sometimes takes a very different path.
The Traditional Jewish Practice: Burial
In Jewish tradition, the removed foreskin is called the “orlah,” and burying it is considered the proper way to handle it. Many mohelim (the practitioners who perform a bris) place the tissue in a container of sand or soil that’s prepared before the ceremony begins. Some families bury it in their yard or garden afterward, while others leave the disposal to the mohel.
The Zohar, a foundational text of Jewish mysticism, offers several reasons for this practice. One explanation treats the orlah as a kind of offering to God, connecting it to the biblical instruction that an altar should be made of earth. Another ties it to the verse promising Abraham that his descendants would “multiply like the sand of the ocean and the earth on the ground,” making the burial a symbolic link to that covenant. A third, more esoteric reading connects the foreskin to the sin of Adam and the serpent, which was cursed to eat dust from the ground.
Not every family follows the burial custom strictly. Some mohelim simply wrap the tissue and dispose of it respectfully. But among traditional and Orthodox communities, burial in earth remains the standard expectation, and many families consider it an important part of completing the ritual properly.
What Happens in a Hospital Setting
When circumcision is performed in a hospital rather than as a religious ceremony, the foreskin is classified as pathological or anatomical waste. Under CDC guidelines, this type of tissue falls under “regulated medical waste,” which means it must be handled with specific precautions. In most hospitals, removed tissue goes into a biohazard container and is eventually incinerated or sterilized through autoclaving (high-pressure steam treatment) before disposal.
This is the default path for the vast majority of circumcision tissue in the United States, where roughly 1.2 million newborn circumcisions are performed each year. Parents typically never see the tissue or are asked what to do with it. It’s treated the same as any other surgically removed tissue.
Foreskin Tissue in Medical Research
Here’s the part that surprises most people: neonatal foreskin is one of the most widely used human tissues in biomedical research. Foreskin from newborns is considered an ideal source of fibroblasts, the cells responsible for producing connective tissue and helping wounds heal. These cells divide rapidly and are easy to culture in a lab, making them valuable for a range of applications.
Researchers use foreskin-derived fibroblasts in wound-healing therapies, particularly for patients with diabetic ulcers whose skin doesn’t regenerate well on its own. The cells also serve as a foundational tool in stem cell research. They’re among the most popular sources for generating pluripotent stem cells, which can be reprogrammed to become virtually any cell type in the body. Labs around the world maintain standardized cell lines originally grown from foreskin tissue, and these lines are commercially available from biotech suppliers.
The tissue used in research comes from hospital circumcisions, not from religious ceremonies. When it is collected for research purposes, informed consent from parents is required. But this process raises ethical questions that remain unresolved in many countries. A study from Saudi Arabia found that the top barriers to parents donating circumcision tissue for research were fear of extra tissue being removed (74.5% of respondents), lack of confidence in the research (68.6%), and concern about commercial use of the tissue (64.7%). The possibility that donated tissue could end up in for-profit products is a real sticking point for many families.
Foreskin-Derived Ingredients in Skin Care
That concern about commercial use isn’t hypothetical. Fibroblasts originally cultured from neonatal foreskin have made their way into the cosmetics industry. Some high-end skincare products contain growth factors or proteins produced by these cell lines. The cells themselves aren’t in the final product, but they’re used in the manufacturing process to generate compounds that promote skin renewal.
It’s worth understanding the scale here. A single foreskin sample can be cultured into millions of cells, and cell lines derived decades ago are still in use today. So the connection between any individual circumcision and a jar of face cream is extremely indirect. Still, the commercial chain from discarded tissue to luxury product is real, and it’s one reason bioethicists continue to push for clearer consent processes and legislation around tissue donation.
Religious Ceremony vs. Medical Procedure
The fate of the foreskin depends almost entirely on context. At a bris, the tissue carries religious significance and is treated with intention, usually buried in keeping with centuries of tradition. In a hospital, it’s treated as medical waste and incinerated, unless parents consent to its use in research. In rare cases, tissue from hospital circumcisions enters a pipeline that leads to medical therapies or commercial products.
If you’re attending or planning a bris, the mohel will handle the orlah as part of the ceremony. You can ask beforehand about their specific practice. Most will either bury it themselves or give the family the option to do so. For hospital circumcisions, the tissue is disposed of by the facility unless you specifically request otherwise.