Articles

Below you will find articles by rabbis, doctors and scholars about the halachic and medical issues surrounding brain-stem death and organ donation. Some articles are pro organ donation and some are con. We believe by showing all positions, we can allow the public to judge for themselves where they stand on these issues.

121. Title: Sale of organs for transplantation (Hebrew)
     

     Author: HaRav Yonah Metzger
     Publication: Binyan Ariel
     Year: 2009~~
     Download: Hebrew

     HOD Comments:

      

122. Title: Decision of the Chief Rabbinical Council on Transplants (Hebrew)
     

     Author: Chief Rabbinate of Israel
     Publication: Binyan Ariel
     Year: 2009~~
     Download: Hebrew

     HOD Comments:

      

123. Title: Organ Donation according to Jewish Law (Hebrew)
     

     Author: HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu
     Publication: Binyan Ariel
     Year: 2009~~
     Download: Hebrew

     HOD Comments:

      

124. Title: Is there patient autonomy in halacha?
     

     Author: Schostak, Zev
     Publication: Assia-Jewish Medical Ethics Vol II, no. 2
     Year: 1995
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     published online in Jewish Virtual Library~~

      

125. Title: Sale of Organs From Living Donor for Transplant Motivation and Decision Making
     

     Author: Rappoport, Rabbi Shabtai
     Publication: An Equitable Distribution of Human Organs for Transplantation
     Year: 1993
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     Published by the Faculty of Law of Hebrew University~~

      

126. Title: What and When is Death?
     

     Author: Rubenstein, Alan
     Publication: www.The New Atlantis.com
     Year: 2009, Spring
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     This article provides a careful review of the history of brain death from its initial debates in the 1960s through to some contemporary arguments, both medical and philosophical. Rubenstein, a member of the now defunct President’s Council on Bioethics, also defines terms such as ‘heart-beating cadaver’, ‘total brain failure’, and ‘death by organ harvesting’ with an eye toward expanding the understanding of brain death. Rubenstein concludes with an argument that total brain failure leading to the complete loss of drive to breathe should be recognized as a marker of death, thus allowing organs to be donated by “without requiring us to revolutionize the concept of death by considering it anything other than the biological event that happens to all living things.”~~

      

127. Title: Striking a chord with Hispanics in quest for organs
     

     Author: Marshall, Samanth
     Publication: Crain’s New York Business
     Year: 2002~~
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:

      

128. Title: The Gift of Life: Ethical issues in organ transplantation
     

     Author: Childress, James F, PhD
     Publication: Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons
     Year: 1996
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     Article found on the web at: http://www.facs.org/education/ethics/childresslect.html~~

      

129. Title: Religious Coping and Use of Intensive Life-Prolonging Care Near Death in Patients With Advanced Cancer
     

     Author: Phelps, Andrea C., MD: Paul K. Maciejewski, PhD, et. al.
     Publication: JAMA
     Year: 2009
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     This article investigated the link between religious coping and the use of intensive life-prolonging care in patients dying of advanced cancer. Researchers found that positive religious coping was associated with more intensive life-prolonging medical care near the end of life. The study concludes that “clinicians should be attentive to religious methods of coping as they discuss prognosis and treatment options with terminally ill patients.” While the findings were amongst terminally ill cancer patients, the same outlook could be extended to patients dying of other causes, such as organ failure.~~

      

130. Title: Consciousness, Coma, and Brain Death – 2009
     

     Author: Rosenberg, Roger N. MD – Commentary by
     Publication: JAMA
     Year: 2009
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     This article is a commentary on “A Definition of Irreversible Coma”, originally published in JAMA 1968;205(6):227-340 Commenting on the seminal 1968 paper defining criteria for determining brain death, Dr. Rosenberg emphasized the staying power of these criteria and explains new understandings of neurological states often confused with brain death, such as persistent vegetative state (PVS) and coma. The review proved a patient could have a dead brain in an otherwise healthy body and the identified this state as irreversible, both key steps in allowing for organ donation from these patients. Brain death is determined by the absence of all reflexes and normal brain electrical activity. PVS and coma patients, in contrast to brain dead patients, demonstrated neurological activity without visible wakefulness. These findings suggest that future research could elucidate what is happening in these states. Forty years after the Harvard paper, the concept of brain death and the road it paved to organ donation is strong; much work is left to be done to understand similar neurological states such as PVS and coma.~~

      

131. Title: Organ Donation
     

     Author: Halevy, Rabbi Yehiel
     Publication: Siach Chachamim
     Year: 1995
     Download: Hebrew

     HOD Comments:
     Chapter 10, page 233. Rabbi Yehiel Yitzchak Helavy, a scion of prominent Yemenite rabbis, was the Secretary General of the Office of the Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1969-1988. He shows how Jewish sources accept brain death as death and support organ donation. He has a video testimonial on the HODS video page.~~

      

132. Title: Legalizing the Sale of Kidneys for Transplantations:Suggested Guidelines
     

     Author: Rapoport, Jayson, BSc, MB, MRCP; Alexander Kagan MD; Michael Friedlander BM, FRCP
     Publication: IMAJ Israel Medical Association Journal
     Year: 2002
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     This team of Israelis campaigns for a regulated system of organ sales and outlines its possible structure. Officially, organ sales are banned by the Ministry of Health today though it is not technically illegal. Unofficially, it is an “open secret” amongst the end stage renal disease community that kidneys can be bought and transplanted in developing countries with post-transplant follow-up provided by the Israeli government. Under the proposed system, kidney sales would be sanctioned by law and coordinated by Israel Transplant. Suitable donors would undergo the same workup already in place for cadaveric donors. Donor fee would be standardized by the Ministry of Health and paid post-operative by Israel Transplant, which would also be responsible for long-term donor follow-up. Any commercial transplantation outside this framework would be made illegal. Establishing a regulated system for organ sales could reduce overall cost of kidney disease patient management while ensuring better care for donors and recipients.~~

      

133. Title: Renal Transplantation in Iran
     

     Author: Ghods. Ahad J., MD
     Publication: Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation
     Year: 2002
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     Oxford journals

      

134. Title: Court case decision -health insurance comp. for organ donors
     

     Author:
     Publication: Court of Jerusalem
     Year: 2006
     Download: English

     HOD Comments:
     Jerusalem Court – English translation~~

      

135. Title: Organ Transplantation in Israel of 2007 – realitty and vision
     

     Author: Gurman, G.M.
     Publication: Harefuah:147 (5)
     Year: 2008~~
     Download: English

     HOD Comments: