Morah:
Some poskim do hold it is necessary, and some don’t. I don’t know who exactly does and doesn’t but that doesn’t really matter to me. There are large communities, especially chassidim who hold it is necessary.
On a quick side. To basically say that it’s fine because not enough babies are dying to cause concern PBA, I do not believe you actually agree with what you said.
It is not nice to tell someone they don’t agree with that they said. And I do agree with it, and I am beyond surprised that you do not.
As noted, every activity in the world carries some risk of death. Many more people die from taking a shower (and falling) than from MBP. And people die from bris milah itself even without MBP. People die from driving cars, crossing streets, and riding bicycles.
People die because our NOx standards at factories are set where they are, and are not set lower. People die because we allow some amount of pollutants into the ocean.
People die because we don’t do an MRI to everyone who goes into a hospital. People die because we don’t do every blood test in the world every time you go to the doctor. Babies die because we don’t do a sonogram every day during pregnancy. Babies die because we don’t keep them in the hospital for observation for a month.
Life is about balancing risk against cost. Unless life has infinite value, there will always be things that are worth more than some chance of dying. Driving cars is worth more than some chance of dying, saving money is worth more than some chance of babies dying from not doing endless sonograms, and performing a bris properly according to halacha is worth more than some chance of babies dying from it.
Of course, at some point the chance is too big, and we do sonograms sometimes, we drive below certain speeds, we limit NOx emissions somewhat, we do MRI’s sometimes, and we don’t do a bris if 3 brothers died from it.
To state therefore that “any chance is too much” puts infinite value on life and cannot be true. It is not true.