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Back to Question of the Week From time to time, we are asked about Organ donation. Here is a response from Rabbi Schwartz. You can also read Rabbi Loevinger's column. Q: What are the halachic sources for and against organ donation? My understanding was that kidney and other organ donations are acceptable even to the Orthodox, but that heart transplants are not, as there is no halachic source dealing with "brain death". Thank you. S.H. in Vancouver. |
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A: In another column, we learned that the prohibition against tattoos, contrary to what we had all thought, was not based primarily on the sanctity of the body or objections to altering it. This week, we deal with issues that are based in the sanctity of the body, namely, the medical use of organs from the dead. It is as if while we are alive, our most precious gift from God is our ability to know Him/Her/It. Therefore, our primary concern even with respect to issues of the body is the avoidance of idolatry. In contrast, the dead body's only gift is its own self and those who care for its respectful burial. In this case, issues of respect for the body itself become central. To get directly to the bottom line, life-saving organ transplants, including heart transplants, are allowed by all liberal branches of Judaism and are also allowed by many Orthodox authorities, including the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and, as far as I understand, the Rabbinical Council of America, under particular conditions. To put the matter simply, the requirement of pikuach nefesh, saving a life, takes precedence over every other commandment except idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder. This includes the commandment to bury the deceased whole. Thus, the Talmud, (Pesachim 25a) says: "We may use any material for healing except that which is connected with idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed." And Maimonides says (Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 5:6): "He who is sick and in danger of death, and the physician tells him that he can be cured be a certain object or material which is forbidden by the Torah, must obey the physician and be cured." The issue of brain-death becomes important, because if brain-death is not death, then the removal of a functional heart from a brain-dead person would be murder (or at least a non-permissible hastening of death) and therefore disallowed even to save another life. This is indeed the central issue of debate regarding heart transplants in the Orthodox world. Some authorities accept certain criteria of brain-death and derive this halachically from analogy with decapitation. (A decapitated person whose heart is still beating is halachically dead.) Others do not accept this analogy. (Since SH asked, I have been discussing Orthodox halachah, but I think it is important to make sure that anyone who may have stumbled onto this site knows that I do not have Orthodox ordination, and so cannot give binding rulings of Orthodox practice.) Even given the considerations of the importance of saving a life, some may have lingering questions about the need to bury organs and the need to give honor and respect to the dead. I offer the following commentaries (not my own): Some commentators have argued that those organs which have been donated are no longer dead, and therefore are no longer in need of burial. The organs have, indeed, experienced a small version of the traditional hope for the messianic times: the resurrection of the dead, techiyat hametim. And certainly it can only bring honor to the deceased to participate in that miracle. If you would like to learn more about the Reform position on organ donation, or would like to sign up to give your consent in the Canada or the U.S. for organ donation, please see the UAHC site on Matan Chaim/ The Gift of Life. written by Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz |
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