International Responsa Project
Subject: Saving lives - positions at
different hospitals
Date: July 2009
Answered by: Rabbi
Mordechai Halperin, M.D.
Is it more important to heal Jewish people than non-Jewish
people?
Practically speaking, would it be better to take a position
at a hospital that has more Jewish patients, particularly religious Jewish
patients, over a hospital with less observant Jews and non-Jews?
In terms of research projects, is it more important to choose
medical issues more common among Jewish people?
Thank you so much!
According to halacha ruled in our generation by the masters
(Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ZTz"L
and - may he live long - Rabbi Ovadia Yosef), there is a Halachic obligation to
treat not only Jews but Gentiles as well, and this obligation exists on any day
of the week, including Shabbat.
The question of choosing between hospitals is not a Halachic
one, but a question of the doctor's personal feeling, depending on a variety of
issues.
In general, it is
preferable to work in the place with the highest medical standard, that is, of
course, only if you have an actual possibility of maintaining Halacha and
refrain from prohibited Chilul Shabbat, either on a non-endangered
patient or other cases.
Subject: Donating embryos for IVF
Date: April 2009
Answered by: Rabbi Mordechai Halperin, M.D.
Dear Rabbi Halperin -
I have been doing some research and
it seems like you a good person to ask this question of.
We are a couple who were blessed with
one child and then had a lot of difficulty producing any more. We went through
several years of fertility treatments and a lot of heartache, but thank God, we
have been blessed with 2 more healthy children.
At this point, we no longer wish to
go through any more fertility treatments. However, we do have several more
embryos (all our own eggs and sperm) stored at our clinic from our IVF
treatments. We have been debating what is the right thing to do with them. Then
just recently we became re-aquainted with another
Jewish couple whom we had not seen for a number of years. It turns out that
they are experiencing fertility issues and have been unable to have any
children. The wife is now over 40 and doctors are not giving her very good
chances with traditional IVF. She is obviously very distressed at this
situation. SO it occurred to us that we could donate our extra embryos to them
if that were permissible. From my own limited research on this topic, I see
that there are halachic issues with this, but it seems also like embryo
donation is allowed under some circumstances. So we would like to know if this
situation is permissible and under what conditions that might be so.
Thank
you so much for your consideration.
In light of the great dispute over the status of the baby
that would be conceived of an embryo donation, the prominent Poskim prohibit such a procedure when the future Halachic
condition of the offspring is compromised.
Regarding the couple in
need of a donation, there are better alternatives Halachically, and those can
be explored with rabbis that are familiar with the couple.