London – Frustration after Beth Din Stalls Organ Donation Drive

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    Photo by: Judah S. HarrisLondon – The founder of a campaign to encourage Orthodox Jews to carry organ donor cards has voiced frustration at the time taken by the Chief Rabbi to issue new guidelines on the subject.

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    Lord Sacks’s office said its views on organ donation would be available before Rosh Hashanah.

    But Robert Berman, who runs the Halachic Organ Donor Society (Hods), said he had been led to believe that the policy was due out last August.

    Mr Berman, who lives in Jerusalem, said that after meeting the Chief Rabbi in March 2009, he had agreed not to lecture on organ donation in the UK until the Chief Rabbi and the London Beth Din decided their position in the summer.

    He said: “I’m puzzled as to why it would take 16 months and counting for the Chief Rabbinate of England to review the halachic and medical issues surrounding organ donation.”

    Arguing there had been no major new developments on organ donation in medicine or Jewish law over the past decade, he declared: “I hope this review will not drag on for years, as I fear it will. This issue is of an urgent life-saving nature and should be given priority.”

    Two hundred rabbis from Israel, the USA and elsewhere support the carrying of the Hods card.

    While some rabbis still insist on the traditional principle that death takes place only when the heart stops beating, increasingly more rabbinic authorities, including Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, have begun to accept brain-stem death as legitimate.

    A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Rabbi said for the past 12 months, the London Beth Din had been engaged “in careful consideration” of organ donations and living wills.


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    25 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Every day of delay can cause a Yid in need to perish.

    Interesting
    Interesting
    13 years ago

    I always thought it was ossur, what’s the sudden reasoning that it is ok? Does a yids body not require burial and opposed to be sliced upon and things being wrenched out? Would organs only help other yidden or also arabs and nazis?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    i didnt know jewish can do organ donation
    i always new itz bizoyin ames

    not me
    not me
    13 years ago

    Mr. Berman has very little to show for the amount of publicity and verbal spill that he masters.

    yeapb
    yeapb
    13 years ago

    ossur, ossur, ossur – which is why I am receiving a kidney from my mother…..

    Secular
    Secular
    13 years ago

    Organ donation poses many halachic challenges.

    For one, death of the donor must be confirmed. The reason why it is challenging is because most (not all) poskim require Cardiac death to declare the person dead. While cardiac death is easy enough to verify (no heart sounds,no pulse, flat line EKG) procurement of organs from a patient with no vital signs (pulse, blood pressure) yields very poor quality organs. The heart and Liver are very sensitive to decreases in blood flow as is common in cardiac arrest. And while a kidney may survive up to 24 (48) hours with diminished blood flow. A heart begins to infarct(die) within minutes and liver within a few hours.

    Secondly, if one follows the opinion of some poskim who only require brain STEM death, to declare a person dead, the procurement of a (beating) heart is possible (permissible?). However, determination of brain (stem) death is more involved and involves more complex tests. In addittion if there is any doubt of the patient’s status at that critical state (Gosses), removing a vital organ: liver or heart can certainly hasten the person’s death (certainly removing the heart)

    more..

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    For starters, this publicilty campaign itself indicates he has little regard for halachah.

    As for the halachic issue: Basically, all poskim allow organ donations under certain circumstances. This organization supports organ donation as a general policy.

    Why don’t you go to th HODS website. You’ll see the many rabbis and the several poskim who agree with this approach, and you can watch an interview with Rav Dovid Feinstein — and you will understand why he does not support this approach.

    Secular
    Secular
    13 years ago

    …another issue to consider, is the fact that Nivul HaMes, although prohibited may have certain exceptions.

    For example autopsies may be performed in a case of an unknown disease whose result might save lives. Or in the case of Pikuach Nefesh where an organ procured from a Deceased person may be used, in the here and now, to save another person (jew’s) life.
    As a matter of policy if one carries an organ donor card, one cannot guarantee or know to whom the organs will be sent.

    An interesting point to ponder is the fact that in countries where socialized medicine is the norm, there are always (government) efforts to make organs available for the general population. There was an initiative in Israel a few months ago (reported on VIN), and now in England. As the article mentions there is a movement amongs some ‘Rabbis’ to take on a more lenient approach on the criteria and definition of death; -all with the result of fascilitating organ procurement and donation.

    Always be wary of socialized medicine. Initially they offer freebies but eventually they aim to control lifestyle and limit choice…tread carefully.

    Secular
    Secular
    13 years ago

    But as I said above:

    “For example autopsies may be performed in a case of an unknown disease whose result might save lives. Or in the case of Pikuach Nefesh where an organ procured from a Deceased person may be used, ‘in the here and now’, to save another person (jew’s) life.”

    David
    David
    13 years ago

    This has nothing to do with nivul ha-meit which is permissible for a holeh lefaneinu (as per Noda bi-Yehudah and Hatam Sofer).

    When the organ is removed, there is most certainly a holeh lefaneinu.

    The issue is whether or not the person from whom the organ is taken is dead, or whether removing the organ caused the person’s death. You cannot kill one person to save another, even if one is really sick and about to die.

    R. Moshe Feinstein, R. Shelomoh Zalman Auerbach, R. Elyashiv, R. Yitzhak Weiss, R. Wosner and almost anybody else worth his salt says that ‘brain dead’ patients are completely alive. So do most American bioethicists, by the way.

    You can’t take their organs because you can’t kill people. It’s quite simple actually.