IDF Wants Your Organs
by Avraham Zuroff/center]
The IDF’s push for organ donations got a boost on Sunday when the IDF’s Chief Military Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Avichai Ronzki and Chief Officer of its Medical Corps, Dr. Nachman Ash, signed organ donation cards at the IDF’s Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv.
“The Torah itself is in favor of saving lives and we are happy to support this cause,” Rabbi Ronzki said at the ceremony, which was held in cooperation with Israel’s National Transplant and Organ Donation Center (Adi).
Stating that he intends to expand the awareness campaign throughout the entire army, Dr. Ash said, “One of the IDF’s values, and particularly that of the Medical Corps, is the preservation of life and a commitment to saving lives. The Adi donor card is a step in that direction.”
IDF officials explained why the organ donation drive did not take place in the past: “Due to the intricacy of the soldiers on the battlefield, exposed to constant danger on a daily basis, we abstained from pressuring them to donate organs.”
While the religious community and its rabbis continue to debate the issue of organ transplants, the statement made by the highest religious official in the IDF is sending a clear message to all of its soldiers. “With G-d’s Help, we hope that the number of donors in the country will rise in order to save life, which is one of the Torah’s essential messages,” Rabbi Ronzki stated.
Rabbis have in the past been reluctant to sanction organ donation out of concern that the organs might not be transplanted in accordance with Jewish law. The most important concern is ensuring that the organ donor has died according to the Jewish legal definition of death. There is a debate in Jewish law as to whether death is defined by the cessation of brain activity, or whether the halting of breathing, alone, is considered the criteria.
The IDF’s Rabbinate bases its ruling to allow organ donations on a 1980 ruling of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, which defines death as the cessation of brain activity. Nonetheless, not all rabbis rule that brain death is considered death. Some say that breathing must cease as well. However, once the heart stops beating, it is no longer suitable for transplant. Therefore, according to those rabbis, it would not be possible to donate a heart without causing the donor to die prematurely, essentially murdering him.
“Some are hesitant lest the doctors will not be strict with all the halachot (Torah laws -ed.). For example, if they remove an organ and find it to be unsuitable for transplant, they might throw it in the garbage instead of burying it. Or worse, perhaps they would remove organs from a person who has not died from a halachic perspective, in which case they are murderers,” the IDF Chief Rabbinate wrote in a statement. However, they explained that there should be no concern for such actions, for several reasons:Since it is possible to perform the transplant without violating Jewish law, according to official guidelines, there is no reason to think that the doctors would do such a thing. Even if it turned out that a doctor was lacking a conscience, he would be afraid to do something which might awaken a public outcry against the hospital in which he had killed someone, since it would close down the hospital. Even if he would do something prohibited, the donor isn’t doing anything forbidden. Quite to the contrary! He is fulfilling the commandment of saving a life, and the sin is the doctor’s since it was possible to fulfill the commandment without doing something forbidden. On such a condition did he donate his organs, thus this is not his violation. It is likewise permitted to sell a pen to a Sabbath violator, even if there exists serious concern that he will violate the Sabbath by using it.
The IDF Chief Rabbinate reiterated the mitzvah of organ donation, in view of its lifesaving potential. Nevertheless, the rabbis urged that doctors act according to the Chief Rabbinate’s definition of death before performing a heart or liver transplant.
Topic: IDF Wants Your Organs - for organ donations (Read 1349 times)