Israel – Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar told the family of brain-dead soccer icon Avi Cohen it can donate his organs to save lives before disconnecting life-support systems.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The family of Cohen, who was critically injured in an accident while riding his motorcycle last week, consulted with Rabbi Amar after a Health Ministry health committee confirmed on Tuesday that Cohen was brain-dead.
“There is no choice other than to say that he has passed away,” said the former soccer star’s son Tamir. “This is the situation, and we thank all of the People of Israel for their help. I ask everyone to give us a bit of peace and quiet as we try to absorb what happened.”
Cohen, 54, played in Israel and also was the first Israeli to play for an English soccer team, having helped Liverpool retains its title as national champions in 1979.
accorcing to most poskim, removing organs from a brain-dead person is Retzicha.
rabbi amar just proved that he’s here to represent the interest of secular israelies and not torah abiding jews
I would say this is the same as live person donation and permissible and i am sure i dont know a tenth of the halachah he does.
if he is truly brain dead he cant breath
R’ Wosner and R’ Elyashiv have both said that Halachik Death is when the heart stops and harvesting a brain-dead person’s organs brings death closer and IS Retzicha. The Shulchan Aruch also alludes to this and R’ Amar’s Psak, whether he is capitulating to the “Medina” or not is definitely puzzling and he should give a public explanation in order to put the naysayers to rest.
The issue of whether “brain death” constitutes death in terms of halacha is perhaps the most complex–and controversial–issue in Jewish medical ethics.
The great majority of major rabbinic authorities have not accepted brain death, whether defined as involving the whole brain or simply the brainstem. A minority of such rabbis have accepted a determination of “brain death” by physicians as sufficient to constitute death — which would in many cases presumably permit removal of organs such as the heart.
The issue is too complex for a full discussion here, but suffice it to say that after a four-year investigation and analysis, the halacha committee of the Rabbinical Council of America did not favor the RCA continuing to define “brain death” as “the criterion” for death. (A copy of their document, meant for internal use only, has been posted on the internet.)
I would like to know when hearing a ruling, which medical experts were consulted and how many different opinions were taken into account and what specialty they are practicing in when giving expert opinion to the Rabbonim. This information would be very helpful to know especially in this case (on both sides) since this ruling deals with newer concepts in medicine.
This is position he took is something that is universally accepted by medical ethicist. I am curious what current medical experts the other side has spoken to about this issue.
This is an intriguing topic, the likes of which will only become more heated as medical science discovers more ways to prolong life beyond a person’s capacity to survive. Hard decisions to be made as “life” becomes more and more artificially malleable. The men who take on the task of determination of modern issues using Halacha, are never going to satisfy all the people. Their issue is truly with G-d.
I think there is a policy on VIN against links, if I’m not mistaken. So please google “Halachic Organ Donor Society”. Its an education.
if your not a posek. who are you to talk against a gadol?
Perhaps he could no longer breathe on his own. Reb Moshe Zt”l held that is the criteria for death – if the person cannot breathe on their own.
With all due respect and apologies to Rav Amar, shlitah, No. 26 is absolutely correct. Reb Moshe zt”l (who was a universally recognized Gadol Hador and Posek) repeatedly stressed that the cessation of breating was death in Halacha. The criterian is the strands of a feather against the nostril. If the strands move, the person is alive, if not – the person is dead and must be buried.
The question inherent in this discussion is whether the person could breathe on his own or is assisted. If assisted, when can a breathing machine (medical ventilator) be removed?
I’d just like to ask all the tzadikim here who don’t accept brain death if they’d *accept* an organ transplant. Because if so, you’re a party to retzicha.
“the poskim that the vast majority of frum yiden relay on are Rav Vosner and Rav Eliyashiv shlita”
Actually, the vast majority of “frum yiden” today are Modern Orthodox/ Dati Leumi who have their own poskim, not these two. The vast majority of the rest of “frum yidden” are Chassidim who also have their own poskim.
Poster #30 asks a good question. It’s one thing to refuse to donate organs because you believe that brain death is not halachic death. However, why would it then be ok to receive organs, as you’d be murdering a person to obtain the organs (and don’t argue that it’s not direct…an organ will not be harvested for transplant until an identifiable match is found, making the connection direct). To receive organs but not donate is ethically repugnant and halachically problematic.
sA few points:
1) I would NOT recommend the HODS website. Read the RCA paper for starters HODS is an advocacy group, aimed at encouraging organ ‘donation.’
2) I am not aware of any survey having been done with regard to which authority is followed by most orthodox Jewish physicians–nor is that relevant. There are two viewpoints on this matter. Rabbi Herschel Shachter of Y.U. has stated multiple times that this is a matter of life and death for the ‘donor’ (i.e. if he is considered alive, removing his vital organs will kill him), and hence he cannot endorse organ removal from a ‘brain dead’ individual.
3) The issue of defining death is not solely a medical issue, so whether more doctors follow this rabbi or that rabbi is not the main issue. As Dr. Abraham Steinberg has pointed out, there is a somewhat arbitrary decision point as to when death has been declared. Many rabbinic authorities are not willing to define that point as being when the brainstem is irreversibly non-functional (‘dead’) or most or even all of the brain is presumably ‘dead.’ These include the great majority of the leading rabbinic sages of our generation.
What I wonder, is how can so many people have opinions on this when they have no details?
Rav Amar is a Gadol. I am certain that he had all of the facts (meaning he did not read a condensed version in a newspaper article), and made a decision based on his complete knowledge of the situation.
While I would love to know how he came to his decision, I 100% understand that I have a surface-level understanding of this specific situation. He did not say that this is now the practice for EVERYONE. He said, after evaluating this PARTICULAR case, that it was permissible and there are many reliable poskim who hold that brain-death is death anyway. It is not like this particular decision came out of left field. Other poskim have made similar decisions in the past.