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Ancient Answers To Modern Questions: Death, Dying And Organ Transplants - A Jewish Law Perspective, Stephen J. Werber
Ancient Answers To Modern Questions: Death, Dying And Organ Transplants - A Jewish Law Perspective, Stephen J. Werber
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
Core values of the Jewish heritage are life and family, not death. An interpretation of Halachah which permits a broad definition of passive euthanasia without lapsing into acceptance of active euthanasia or its more evil cousin, assisted suicide, is consistent with these values. Also consistent with these values and the Jewish tradition is a modern definition of death which recognizes advances in medical technology that were beyond the knowledge or imagination of those who created the vast body of Rabbinic law. This approach will not only ease the suffering of families, it will allow organ transplants to save the lives …
Ancient Answers To Modern Questions: Death, Dying, And Organ Transplants - A Jewish Law Perspective, Stephen J. Werber
Ancient Answers To Modern Questions: Death, Dying, And Organ Transplants - A Jewish Law Perspective, Stephen J. Werber
Journal of Law and Health
To understand the application of Jewish Law to issues of death and the dying process one must first be aware of the importance of life, and saving life (pikuach nefesh), in Jewish thought. Judaism "attribut[es] . . . infinite value to human life. Infinity being indivisible, any fraction of life, however limited its expectancy or its health, remains equally infinite in value." The Mishnah teaches that creation began with a single human being to "teach you that to destroy a single human soul is equivalent to destroying an entire world; and that to sustain a single soul is …