Organ Donation In Jewish Law
Certain fundamental Jewish law questions arise in all organ donation issues. Rabbinic rulings and opinions represent different assessments of how to balance Judaism’s duties to preserve one’s own life and to help others live. Overall, according to many Halachic rulers, there are no Jewish laws that state you can't donate organs, and usually it is pikuach nefesh (probability of saving the recipient’s life in the process) that gives people permission to donate. The probability of saving the recipient’s life must be substantially greater than the risk to the donor’s life or health. However, it is always advised to consult with a rabbi before making a decision.
Under Jewish law, organ donation raises some questions, and has traditionally been met with some skepticism. However, it has met increasing acceptance as medical transplantation methods have improved. In both Orthodox Judaism and non-Orthodox Judaism, the majority view holds that organ donation is permitted in the case of irreversible cardiac rhythm cessation. In some cases, rabbinic authorities believe that organ donation may be mandatory, whereas a minority opinion considers any donation of a live organ as forbidden.
Read more about Organ Donation In Jewish Law: Relevant Principles of Jewish Law, Ultra-orthodox Opposition, See Also, Sources
Famous quotes containing the words organ, jewish and/or law:
“But alas! I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physical organization. It is likely that such a very liberal amount of space was given to the organ which enables me to make promises, that the organ which should enable me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere ordinary capacity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Don: Why are they closed? They’re all closed, every one of them.
Pawnbroker: Sure they are. It’s Yom Kippur.
Don: It’s what?
Pawnbroker: It’s Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday.
Don: It is? So what about Kelly’s and Gallagher’s?
Pawnbroker: They’re closed, too. We’ve got an agreement. They keep closed on Yom Kippur and we don’t open on St. Patrick’s.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“They who say that women do not desire the right of suffrage, that they prefer masculine domination to self-government, falsify every page of history, every fact in human experience. It has taken the whole power of the civil and canon law to hold woman in the subordinate position which it is said she willingly accepts.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)