Certain fundamental Jewish law questions arise in issues of organ donation. Donation of an organ from a living person to save another's life, where the donor's health will not appreciably suffer,[1] is permitted and encouraged in Jewish law. Donation of an organ from a dead person is equally permitted for the same purpose: to save a life (pikuach nefesh). This simple statement of the issue belies, however, the complexity of defining death in Jewish law. Thus, although there are side issues regarding mutilation of the body etc., the primary issue that prevents organ donation from the dead amongst Jews, in many cases, is the definition of death, simply because to take a life-sustaining organ from a person who was still alive would be murder.
Because in Jewish law, organ donation raises such difficult questions, it has traditionally been met with some skepticism. In both Orthodox Judaism and non-Orthodox Judaism, the majority view holds that organ donation is certainly permitted in the case of irreversible cardiac rhythm cessation. Many rabbis, such as rabbi Moshe Tendler consider brainstem death (believing this is the opinion held by his father-in-law Moshe Feinstein), where respiration and heart rhythm are artificially maintained, to be considered death.[2] However, other rabbis disagree.
Because most organs must be transplanted before the heart has ceased, the debate over brain whilst there continues to be opposition to transplantation before cardiac/respiratory death, there are several authorities which argue that it is allowed, and this is now the official position of the government of the State of Israel and its Chief Rabbinate.[3]
^Steinberg, Avraham (2003). Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics. Jerusalem. New York.: Feldheim Publishers.
^"Iggrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah III: 132", Sefaria cited in Tendler, Moshe, Care of the Critically Ill, Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1996.
^Stewart Ain. "Pushback From Some Orthodox Rabbis On Brain-Death Ruling". Jewish Telegraph Agency.
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