More Evidence Of RCA Lies

The RCA continues to cover up the facts of brain stem death.

Spoke With Rabbi Feinstein
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Frank J. Veith • New York Jewish Week

 Although I am not Jewish, I met with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein in 1976 to discuss brain death and organ donation with him (“RCA Backs Off Stand On Brain Death For Transplants,” Dec. 3). He told me that brain death was death according to the Talmud, and I reported his opinion in an article I wrote that was published on Oct. 10, 1977 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It is a pity the RCA’s document omitted mentioning my testimony that appears in video form on the website of the Halachic Organ Donor Society (www.hods.org).

More than 7,000 Americans die every year on the waiting list for organs. It will be a tragedy if the efforts of the RCA cause more Americans to die. Moreover, I am shocked that the RCA rabbis concluded that brain-dead people are alive so Jews should not donate organs, but they don’t mind Jews taking critical organs from other non-Jewish people like me who are dying “anyway.”

Professor of Surgery
New York University Medical Center

 

Comments

[Not so Simple]

What's missing from this letter is that the physicians in attendance at this meeting relied upon Rabbi Moshe Tendler's translation to and from Yiddish.

In other words, all they know is what Rabbi Tendler told them that Rav Moshe was saying, but not as to whether he actually said it.

Given that Rabbi Tendler is hardly considered reliable as regards to this issue -- to say the least -- and given that some of those who communicated directly with Rav Moshe on this matter tell a different story, this matter is far from being as obvious as it seems.

Rabbi Moshe Sherrer, for instance, in his private, personal diary (not intended for publication) tells of his own private discussions with Rav Moshe and says that Rav Moshe told him to fight against passage of NYS brain death giuidelines.

[Shmarya]

What's missing from this letter is that the physicians in attendance at this meeting relied upon Rabbi Moshe Tendler's translation to and from Yiddish.

You're presuming Rav Moshe understood no English. But that assumption is wrong.

He certainly understood enough English to know if the doctors were being lied to.

Past that, Rav Moshe's children and grandchildren – many of whom spoke with Rav Moshe about this issue – all say Rabbi Tendler's representation of what Rav Moshe said and held is correct.

Perhaps you'd be better off trying to convince your RCA colleagues that you did not lie to them. They seem to be gullible enough to believe you.

[Reader]

Its possible that RMF did not want brain death legislated in order that those Jews who insisted upon cardiac death not be imposed upon.

[David]

It is not possible to interpret 21st Century science with a Bronze Age education (e.g. refer to my previous comments in the article about security cameras at the Kottel with the Rabbis struggling (no, unable) to comprehend quantum mechanical processes in CCD camera chips and saying that "a light" is turned on inside the cameras.). Any Rabbis who paskin on the issue of death must have as a minimum, a 20th century secular education. Judaism is meant to believe in dignity. It is morally wrong to keep a dead person "alive" on "life support", especially when it means the consumption of a resource that could otherwise keep biologically viable people with a real chance of recovery (Jews or non-Jews) alive.

[jay]

Legislating brain death would not impose upon those who follow cardiac death. They would not have to donate organs according to that standard. A living will would suffice to limit the terms under which their organs were harvested.

So according to these so-called "moral' and "spiritual" leaders we cant' donate organs under these terms but we can accept donations of gentile organs? This smacks of the racial or ethnic supremacism. It's absolutely disgusting.

[jay]

Here's irrefutable evidence that "Not so Simple" and the RCA are lying:

http://www.hods.org/English/h-issues/YouTube_video%20pages/RabbiDovidFeinstein.asp

[Shmarya]

Its possible that RMF did not want brain death legislated in order that those Jews who insisted upon cardiac death not be imposed upon.

Posted by: Reader | December 22, 2010 at 07:05 AM

No. It is not possible.

[esther]

" Any Rabbis who paskin on the issue of death must have as a minimum, a 20th century secular education."

[jay]

The link I posted above is video footage of Dovid Feinstein discussing his father's standing on brain death. Read it, RCA and weep :-P

[Shmarya]

The link I posted above is video footage of Dovid Feinstein discussing his father's standing on brain death. Read it, RCA and weep :-P

Posted by: jay | December 22, 2010 at 02:17 PM

The RCA knows the truth. It knows that RMF held that brain stem death is halakhic death.

But they lie because Hershal Schachter doesn't agree with RMF, or RMDT, or anyone with a real medical background, and he is, quite frankly, infantile and wants his position to win. So the RCA lies for him.

[Robby Berman, Director of HODS]

It would have been a comical sight to see Rav Moshe say in Yiddish "Brain death is NOT death" and then his son-in-law Rav Moshe Tendler turn to the doctors present and purposely mis-translate and say "My father-in-law just said brain death IS death." Rabbi Tendler must have been really sweating bullets waiting for the shoe to drop. Thank God Rav Moshe did not understand the difference between the words "NOT" and "IS." How many years was he living in America?

What a silly scenario. ALL, I repeat, ALL living witnesses even those that speak Yiddish testify in English on the HODS web site on video that Rav Moshe said brain death was death and you should donate organs (Rabbi Moshe Tendler, Rabbi Mordechai Tendler, Rabbi Shabtai Rappaport, Dr. Veith and Dr. Greifer.)

Check out their videos on www.hods.org.

[A. Nuran]

Jay, it doesn't "smack of" racial supremacism. It loudly proclaims it. "We are too holy to give to you. But we are glad to use you for spare parts."

Esther, that would require a lot more education in history, mathematics (not arithmetic), science and other faith-destroying subjects than many of the Orthodox are willing to tolerate.