Winnipeg, Canada – Three doctors have now resigned from duty at a Winnipeg hospital rather than obey a court order to continue treating an elderly man on life support.
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Samuel Golubchuk,84, has been on life support with minimal brain function at the Grace Hospital since last fall. Doctors at the hospital wanted to take Golubchuk off life support, but Golubchuk’s relatives have argued that would violate his beliefs as an Orthodox Jew.
In February, a judge ordered the hospital to continue treating Golubchuk until a trial can be held in mid-September. A few weeks ago, Dr. Anand Kumar resigned from caring for Golubchuk, saying in a letter that he felt keeping the elderly man alive was “tantamount to torture.”
Two other doctors — Bojan Baunovic and David Easton — have also said they will no longer care for Golubchuk.
“What I can tell you is that there are three critical care doctors who have recently resigned from the [intensive care unit] shift schedule at the Grace Hospital,” said Heidi Graham, spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
The WRHA is working with other physicians to ensure the hospital can continue to provide critical care despite the loss of the three doctors, Graham said.
The lawyer for the Golubchuk family is not commenting at this time.
Remember, *nobody* claims this man is already dead. He is alive by *everybody’s* definition, these “doctors” just want him dead. I’m sure we’ll have the usual suspects defending them, but this is indefensible. These “doctors” are thugs, death-worshipers.
A doctor is supposed to be dedicated to preserving life no matter what; it’s the patients (or their medical attorneys) who have the right to overrule the doctor and decide not to be treated, and if they do so the doctor must reluctantly comply with their wishes. But for a doctor to insist that a patient give up and die, when the patient and his representative want to keep fighting, is obscene.
This is great news. If all the doctors that are out there to kill patients resign then we won’t have killer doctors.
This is great news for people that want ethical doctors and doctors that do not kill their patients.
many more should resign and we will all be happy.
How many other patients are being deprived of proper care because these doctors resigned? Obviously their political agenda is more important to them than caring for patients. They should lose their medical license for this.
unfortunately hospitals try to kill old people
According to the doctor, this person is dead, so why is he saying that it is torture? Obviously he is alive!
To anonymous 4:28: Great point!!
4:28, I don’t know where you got the idea that the doctor thinks the patient is dead. Nothing like that is mentioned in this article or any other that I’ve seen. As far as I can tell, *nobody* thinks Mr Golubchek is dead, but these doctors would like him to be dead soon.
A doctor is not dedicated to maintaining life at all costs. He/She is dedicated to preserving a patients body and mind from ailment and improving quality of life. Whether this man is dead or near dead is not the point: no treatment in the world will restore his health, and he has no quality of life in his condition. What else can we do at that point but allow the natural end to life to occur?
Remember that treatment in the ICU is incredibly invasive and, yes, painful. This man probably has tubes extending from every orifice, and he apparently has a severe, bone depth ulcer on his behind. Treating this alone is a severely painful procedure.
Some say, how can he be “dead” and still be tortured? Easily. Pain is the most basic of all senses. A person can be so brain dead that their heart and lungs stop working, but will still feel pain. No doubt when the physicians cut away at the infected ulcer, they can see the patient reflexively withdrawing from the cold hard edge of their scalpels.
Obviously, none of the above commentators are medical practitioners. The end of life is a blurry line to be sure, but there are times when seeking to extend life is painful, inhumane and ending it is even sanctioned in our sefarim.
When R. Yehuda Hanasi lay in pain and dying and his students were praying for him to live. His maid went up to the roof, and threw down a clay jar to startle his students to interrupt their prayers. They stopped praying and R. Yehuda passed on. The halacha uses many examples of permitting one to die, the most famous one is allowing salt to be removed from the tounge if it is preventing someone’s death. The specific meaning of the example is unclear, but it clearly implies when there is no hope, it is allowable to withdraw medical care.
None of the above commentators know the specifics of Mr. Golubcheck’s medical condition. I would think though that the fact that three intensive care Physicians, whose specialty is using every possible means to extend and preserve life beyond what what would happen naturally would give pause to the condemnations and consider that perhaps his condition is such that he is suffering immensely, and death would be a release for him.
I have seen many patients in such a condition unfortunately and it is a release for the patient, the medical team taking care and the family when such a patient is allowed to finally go home to Hashem.
Calling Doctors obscene, unethical, thugs and death worshippers shows the smallness of their accusers and does nothing to advance your cause or your mistaken, yes mistaken beliefs which Halacha does not support.
my mother a’h used to mentioned to us that if somethings to happen to her one day not too keep her alive so when she was in a vegitated state we asked posekem and made the decision based on the fact that this is what my mother would of wanted
in the usa we have DNR orders…do not resusitate. a patient can sign them and then hopefully family and hospital will abide.not always can u tell what Hashem’s plans are.
Thiacin, a doctor’s job is to maintain life at all costs. That doctors today have abandoned this goal is a disgrace and reflects on the morals of their teachers. The Torah’s license to doctors is “verapo yerapeh”; they have no right to do otherwise.
David, the right to refuse treatment belongs to the patient alone, or to his representative if he’s unable to express himself, and not to anyone else; certainly not to any doctor, whose job is to urge against this decision. Rebbi had the right to want to die; his maid had the right to do what she did on his behalf, since she had nothing but his interest in mind. But a doctor would have had no right to do so, especially when he is at least partly motivated by the resources being spent on the patient. He’s in no position to know or even guess what the patient wants; his only commission is to heal, to fight, and never to surrender unless forced to by the patient himself.
First of all Milhouse, translate your quotations from the Torah so that I may provide a reasonable repartee. A doctors duty is not to maintain life no matter what the cost to the patient. To be clear, I am not referring to costs on the part of the health care provider.
All doctors in North America take an oath, of which part is, “never do harm to anyone”. The invasive and painful care Golubchuk is being put under is harmful. As there is no reasonable possibility of his recovery, then these “treatments” only represent a harm to the patient, hence doctors cannot, and should not perform them.
All of medical care comes down to cost vs benefit. The cancer patient has to decide; is six extra months worth it if I am vomiting constantly and losing my hair? In Golubchuks case there is no benefit to speak of, only pain and suffering. That these doctors chose to cease care is a testament to their devotion, when this decision clearly pained the family.
I’d also like to point out that in Canada, there is ABSOLUTELY NO motivation for doctors to deny care to ANY patient. The finances are separated from patient care by carefully placed barricades. We the tax payers may be concerned about money, but the doctors have no professional concern about how much it costs to keep Golubchuk’s heart beating.
And also, I can’t believe that some members in a Jewish forum believe doctors should just do as ordered, regardless of their ethics! I do believe that there is historical example of this very attitude contributing to great suffering on the part of Jewish populations in Europe.