Rabbis' Meddling Brings Awful Results

Can you imagine the agony and suffering that patients, anxiously waiting on the transplant list, and their families went through when they were first told that suitable organs were available, only to be told later that the family had rescinded their agreement to the donation? The secular donor was a proud carrier of an organ donor card. He had even tried to get all the footballers in Israel to sign one. His family had also automatically agreed to the donation the moment they were informed that their loved one was brain dead. But then came the rabbinical steamroller. The donor is now dead and buried, and those whose lives could have been saved must go on waiting for another potential donor and hoping the rabbis don't get to the family first.

 

Rabbis' meddling brings about the most awful results
Moshe Katsav's election as president showed how the unseen hand of power brokers carried the day
By Anshel Pfeffer • Ha’aretz

I remember well the day that Moshe Katsav was elected president. It was one of the most amusing lunches I ever had in the Knesset canteen. The place was more like a cafe or pub outside a soccer stadium after the home team had been trounced by an underdog visitor.

Labor was in power and its candidate, the eternal Shimon Peres, seemed to be a shoo-in. But then, after the first round of voting, when the two candidates emerged tied in the secret ballot, it all turned around, and Katsav won in the second round. Despite the secrecy, it was clear what had happened. Shas had transferred its votes, promised originally to the hapless Peres. Nominally, this was a victory for Ariel Sharon's Likud, then in opposition. And party members were suitably elated, but the real jubilation was that of the Shas members and functionaries who streamed into the canteen to celebrate and crow in the face of crestfallen Laborites, as if Katsav had been their candidate all along.

What had happened behind the scenes was even more interesting. Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, had been for Peres until the morning of the vote. The two octogenarians had been close for many years, with Peres loyally visiting Rabbi Yosef every Sukkot and Pesach. Yosef had little if any respect for Katsav and assured his old friend that he had all of Shas' 17 votes. But in the weeks before the election, Yosef and the Shas MKs were bombarded by delegations of rabbis of every stripe trying to persuade them to vote for Katsav, who as a politician had cultivated ties with the courts of local rabbinical power brokers. "How can you prefer the secular Peres" they asked, "to Katsav, who sent all his children to study in religious schools and yeshivas?"

Yosef did not budge. He had given his word. But as the day of the vote grew close, those around him warned that some of the party's MKs might use the secret ballot to defy orders, and everyone would know afterward that Shas had not been entirely loyal. The venerable rabbi, who not long ago had booted out the party's super-popular leader, Aryeh Deri, could not afford at that stage to open arift in the ranks. The pressure forced the rabbi to hedge his bet and allow part of the Knesset faction to vote Katsav.

After the first-round tie, the remaining MKs were told to go with the winner. I'm not claiming for one minute that the rabbis lobbying on Katsav's behalf had any knowledge that their candidate was an habitual sexual predator, as the Tel Aviv District Court ruled yesterday, but meddling by rabbis seems to bring about the most awful results.

By every parameter, Shimon Peres was a far more worthy candidate for the mainly ceremonial role of president than Katsav, even if the latter had never laid a hand on one of his female employees. But the rabbis were determined to have it their way. Just look at what a fine president Peres turned out to be when he was finally elected to the post, probably the only official representative Israel can really be proud of. And compare that to the national shame of having a head of state convicted of rape and indecent acts.

Recent weeks has given us other prime examples of the disastrous results of rabbinical interference. Can you imagine the agony and suffering that the patients, anxiously waiting on the transplant list, and their families went through on Tuesday when they were first told that suitable organs were available, due to the fatal accident of former Israel football captain and Liverpool defender Avi Cohen - only to be told later that the family had rescinded their agreement to the donation? The secular Cohen was a proud carrier of an organ donor card. He had even tried to get all the footballers in Israel to sign one. His family had also automatically agreed to the donation the moment they were informed that their loved one was brain dead. But then came the rabbinical steamroller. All manner of rabbis and kabbalists who had flocked to Ichilov Hospital to share the limelight and offer solace to the family began promising visions of a speedy recovery and ominous threats that harvesting his organs while his heart was still beating was tantamount to murder. The family, despite the entreaties of those who knew Avi best, caved in to the pressure. And who can blame them?

Avi Cohen is now dead and buried and those whose lives could have been greatly improved, even saved, must go on waiting for another potential donor and hoping the rabbis don't get to the family first.

There is a death waiting to happen - the first vigilante murder of a foreign worker in one of the poorer neighborhoods, or of a young Israeli Arab dating a Jewish girl. The rabbis' letter against renting flats to Arabs and their incitement against foreign workers has unleashed ugly demonstrations in Safed, Tel Aviv and Bat Yam. This week we had the rebbetzin's racist letter warning the innocent girls of Israel about duplicitous Arabs who will use false names and pretenses to steal them away to their villages, where they will suffer a life of abuse and deprivation. Of course, those issuing such warnings will deny any connection to the inevitable bloodshed.

Often, those who are most easily swayed by meddling rabbis are not mitzvah-observant themselves. Many religious Israelis know when to ask advice of rabbis; when not to; and which spiritual leaders to choose. They also carry organ donor cards, vote according to their conscience and better judgment and, while not being in favor of intermarriage, would never dream of engaging in any racist pursuit. The rabbis tend to prey on the fears and prejudices of the poor, the disadvantaged and the distressed. But why should we accuse the rabbis? After all, they are acting upon what they truly believe in. The real blame goes to a weak society and ineffectual leaders who allow them to wield such power.

Comments

[IH]

I hope an investigative reporter cuts through the surface discussion and documents what these "rabbis and kabbalists" told the family that convinced them to overrule the donor request made by their loved one.

Getting that out on the table, is what is need to effect the societal change so badly needed in Israel (http://tinyurl.com/3amswau).

[JC]

The rabbis are not the problem (they are a problem but not *the* problem). The problem begins with the state. If someone gets a donor card it is his wishes that his body becomes available for transplants. Just like if someone writes a “will” it is accepted that these are his wishes whether his family likes it or not. So let’s lay the blame where it belongs - the state and the family. The state for not giving more teeth to the meaning of the donor card and the family for not following his wishes. The rabbis here are just an extension of the family’s meddling.

[effie]

But for the rabbis interference, the donation would have taken place. The blame belongs with them. Too bad the family of the person who was expecting a transplant can't sue these jerks.

[ah-pee-chorus]

the authors fear of a vigilante type murder of a foreigner or of arabs is well founded and rooted in history. i suggest people read the background to baruch goldsteins mass murder, and the govt. having practically held his hand as he pulled the trigger by allowing the environment necessary for the growth of such hatred, just as is happening today.

http://members.tripod.com/alabasters_archive/goldstein_significance.html

[ruthie]

it's just so very sad for the people who needed the organs and their families. heartbreaking

[ah-pee-chorus]

i agree ruthie. and it is an example of the type of immoral and cruel behavior which can be done by otherwise good people, once religion gets involved.

[JC]

*Too bad the family of the person who was expecting a transplant can't sue these jerks*

Too bad the dead have no legal representation then maybe the family can be sued for not following their wishes. Who knows how many people with donor cards do not have their wishes followed because their families are not legally bound. I am sure that these numbers overshadows the numbers that are influenced by rabbis.

Again, I have no love of rabbis, but don’t give the state a pass on this; they can easily put more legal teeth into the ramification of carrying a donor card. Just like a “will” has powerful legal control of the disposition of a deceased person’s possessions, the same way a donor card should have powerful legal control of the disposition of a deceased person’s body. There should be no difference.

[A E ANDERSON]

I hate to side with the crazy rabbis and kabbalists, but if the guy's heart is still beating, I think we can safely say he's alive.

This reminds me of the Monty Python sketch in "The Meaning of Life" where Graham Chapman and John Cleese, cast as paramedics, arrive at the home of a card-carrying organ donor to claim his liver. The man, still live, refuses, but the paramedics break in and disembowel him amid much gore and screaming.

As far as I'm concerned, the same rule applies to organ donations and Agriprocessors: wait 'till the victim's truly dead before you start cutting him up, thank you very much.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

"Rabbis" wear all kinds of hats these days.

Some "Rabbis" are professional criminals while other "Rabbis" get to play God.

How fortunate for me to be born into the same religion as these Jewish fuckers.

Moshiach Uber Alles.

[Alter Kocker]

It is never a question as to whether the rabbinic leaders of Israel will put their proverbial foot in their mouths, the question is always how they will manage to get the other one in there with it.

These black hatted ignorant fools with their delusions of glory will, if left to their own devices lead Israel down a path to destruction and then blame the destruction not on themselves but on the peoples' lack of observance.

For the sake of the future of Israel, it is necessary to separate synagogue and state. No more religious parties. No more power brokering by the likes of Shas or Ovadia Yosef. A line must be drawn in the sand and the rabbinate dare not cross it.

[effie]

JC: Here, I'll type slower - But for the fact of the rabbis interference, the transplant would have occurred. They are to blame. They interfered. They are the ones who put pressure on the family and lied to them.

[Jay]

Brain death doesn't mean a heart necessarily stops the heart. The patient will need support in order to breathe, but without a ventilator and feeding tube, the heart is sure to stop. That's why many leading Orthodox Rabbis, like David Feinstein, defined brain stem death as halachic death. They took the time to understand the biological facts, unlike the leaders of Haredistan.

[WoolSilkCotton]

++if the guy's heart is still beating, I think we can safely say he's alive++

That is medically and scientifically false.

You can remove a heart, put it into a glass jar of isotonic solution, attach tubes to the aortic root to perfuse the coronaries with dissolved oxygen and nutrients, and a tube in the coronary sinus to remove waste products. Such a heart will continue to beat for days to weeks. This is the Langendorff Heart prep, well known to every medical physiology researcher.

Physiologists have been doing this for about 100 years. Here is one of the original descriptions:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1514700/
pdf/jphysiol02527-0112.pdf

And today:

http://www.adinstruments.com/solutions/research/
Langendorff-Heart/

The heart has its own intrinsic rhythm, with additional regulation from the brain stem and from circulating hormones, but an isolated heart will beat with its own steady rate and rhythm.

Anderson, will you give the glass jar an aliyah at your shul?

When a donor heart is removed for transplant, the aortic root is likewise cannulated, but perfused with an ice cold potassium containing solution to temporarily stop the heart so as to minimize its oxygen requirements. Such a heart can be preserved for about 4 hours while it is being rushed to the hospital where the recipient eagerly awaits.

If a patient is declared brain dead, but the body is maintained with all available technology (i.e. respirator for the lungs, dialysis machine in case of renal failure, pacemaker IAPB or LVAD in case the heart fails, etc.) and drugs, fluids and nutrients are given, the body will last a few days, perhaps as long as two weeks.

Eventually (about two weeks maximum), despite all such efforts, but with no brain overseeing physiologic processes, the body will succumb to multi-organ system failure.

If you know of someone who lived for years in a vegetative comatose state, that person was NOT brain dead.

Do not confuse terms such as comatose, vegetative state, and brain dead. Each means something very very different in the medical world.

[A E ANDERSON]

Can't they just wait for the heart to stop and then start harvesting? I can't get that Monty Python sketch out of my mind where the paramedics beat down the door and messily extract this guy's liver over his loud protests.

[A E ANDERSON]

I suppose two weeks on these machines with no other signs of life, and a heart beat being mechanically maintained, would overcome my squeamishness. Still, I think I'd put on some really loud hard rock and go wait in the next room while the goons do their butchery.

[A E ANDERSON]

Monty Python
The Meaning of Life, Part V
LIVE ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp-pU8TFsg0

[WoolSilkCotton]

By the time the heart stops spontaneously in a brain dead patient, it is most likely ischemic (dying from lack of oxygen via the coronaries) and therefore worthless for transplant.

If you waited for a brain dead patient to become totally 'body dead' or 'heart dead', all the major organs will be hypoxic and worthless by that time; if fact, that's why the body dies by then.

Even if the heart of a brain dead patient stopped, suddenly and spontaneously without ischemia while still in the donor body, you would only have a couple of precious minutes before it became worthless. You simply cannot rip the chest open and rush it to the recipient that quickly.

A brain dead patient is DEAD. It is as certain as anything can be in medicine; as certain as pronouncing anyone dead, notwithstanding any anecdotes of patients who allegedly 'recovered' after being pronounced dead by competent physicians who observed the protocol.
You are aware from previous threads on the topic that the brain death protocols of the American Academy of Neurology are strict and clear.

http://www.neurology.org/content/74/23/1911.full.pdf

http://www.aan.com/globals/axon/assets/7562.pdf

Anderson, it might be a good idea to do some volunteer work in a hospital ICU or with your local Sharing Network. (Maybe you could do that next time a judge orders 'community service').

Such an experience would sober you to the realities of the donor and their family, the recipient and their family, and the health care professionals involved.
Your repeated glib referrals to a comedy sketch indicate that such volunteer experience would be a good thing to do.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Think of brain death as if the patient's head were chopped off. There is NO blood flowing to the brain, and the brain cells are dead.

Would a body with its head physically chopped off still be considered 'alive' by anyone, even if the body was being kept going with a ventilator and intravenous drugs and nutrients?

[WoolSilkCotton]

There is such an entity ('non-heart-beating organ donation') where a patient who is not brain dead, but is considered in an irreversible catastrophic vegetative state, and the family has decided to end life support, is taken to the operating room, has his femoral artery and vein connected to a cardiopulmonary bypass machine while still technically alive, and then the patient is disconnected from the ventilator. The patient is put on cardiopulmonary bypass for organ harvest as soon as the heart stops beating and they are pronounced 'dead' by the transplant surgeon.

When this idea was proposed at my hospital, many doctors and nurses vehemently objected (including me), and the idea was abandoned. Other institutions are probably doing this procedure, which I find morally wrong because the patient is technically still alive while undergoing a surgical procedure (cannulating the femoral vessels) which is of no benefit whatsoever to the patient, and is thus a criminal act in my opinion.

http://www.peh-med.com/content/2/1/17

Please understand that this is not redefining brain death. Many health care professionals object to Non-Heart Beating Organ Donation and will not participate. It is the one area where the New Jersey Organ Sharing Network should hang its head in shame.

It is unfortunate that in such a difficult time, where explaining and understanding it has to be done under duress during a family's time of grief, is clouded by the issue of whether your loved one is truly dead or not.

[ah-pee-chorus]

WSC- one good comment after another. informative, realistic and sensitive. yeyasher kochacha.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Thanks APC. The topic continues on the thread 'A Violated Will'.
William Emba makes some good points there, as does Shmarya.

A Gutten Shabbos and L'Shana Tovah to all!

[ah-pee-chorus]

shana tova!!!