Brain death: Revisiting the rabbinic opinions in light of current medical knowledge

Tradition

Volumn 38, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 48-62

  Kunin, Joshua ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

APNEA; ARTICLE; BRAIN; BRAIN DEATH; DEATH; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; DECAPITATION; ETHICS; HEART ARREST; HUMAN; PATHOPHYSIOLOGY; RELIGION; RELIGIOUS APPROACH; TRANSPLANTATION;

DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; RELIGIOUS APPROACH;

APNEA; BRAIN; BRAIN DEATH; DEATH; DECAPITATION; HEART ARREST; HUMANS; JUDAISM; TISSUE AND ORGAN HARVESTING;

EID: 33645824938     PISSN: 00410608     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. Report of the ad hoc committee of the Harvard Medical School to examine the definition of brain death. "A definition of irreversible coma," JAMA 205:6 (1968): 85-88.
2. "[Brain Death and] Heart transplants: The [Israeli] Chief Rabbinate's Directives," translated and annotated by Yoel Jakobovits, Tradition 24:4 (1989): 1-14.
3. (The original Hebrew version can be found in Sefer Assia, vol. 6 [Jerusalem: Makhon Schlesinger, 1989], 27-38). They restricted their permission to harvest organs to only those patients who had suffered traumatic, accidental injury: The significance of the requirement of 'traumatic injury' is to restrict the permission of heart donation to donors that are only injured through trauma. These injured patients fulfilling [brain death criteria] are defined halachically as trefa [even] if they cannot be defined as dead." (p. 31, n. 26 of the Hebrew version) Dr. Mordechai Halperin notes, In spite of the complete certainty of the decision, the Rabbinate chose to limit the permission to trauma patients (trefa) in order to strengthen [the decision] and to answer the objections of those who disagree with the decision of the Rabbinate. ("The Legal Significance of the Decision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel on Heart Transplantation," [in Hebrew] Sefer Assia, vol. 7 [Jerusalem: Makhon Schlesinger, 1993], 126). Sacrificing the life of a trefa in order to give another person a cure is itself a highly controversial position, but beyond the scope of this paper. (See Rabbi J. D. Bleich, "Of Cerebral, Respiratory and Cardiac Death," in Contemporary Halakhic Problems, vol. IV [New York: Ktav, 1995], p. 333, note 42, for a brief discussion of this). This, however, does not alter the clear and explicit intention of the Rabbinate's decision that brain death criteria are sufficient to determine death for the purpose of organ donation. See for example their remarks in Sefer Assia 6 (1989): 31, item 7a, entitled, "Fulfillment of the conditions to determine death based on the above criteria [i.e., brain death criteria]" and p. 33, item 3.1, entitled, "Defining brain death (italics added) as complete cessation of brain stem function."
4. R. J. David Bleich, "Of Cerebral, Respiratory, and Cardiac Death," Tradition 24:3 (1989): 44-66. Jakobovits notes others who have raised opposition to the Chief Rabbinate's position.
5. Prof. Avraham Steinberg, "Determination of Death: Survey of Viewpoints," [in Hebrew] Assia 14 (1994): 5-16.
6. Rabbi Elazar Menahem Shakh, letter originally printed in the Hebrew Yated Ne'eman, 12 Kislev, 5747.
7. Rabbi Yitshak Yaakov Weiss, Minhat Titshak, vol. 5 (Jerusalem: Makhon Hatam Sofer, 1975), sections 7-8.
8. R. Shmuel ha-Levi Wosner, Shevet ha-Levi, vol. 7 (Bnei Brak: 1990), Hoshen Mishpat, chapter 235.
9. Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, letter printed in the Hebrew Hamodia, 22 Heshvan, 5747.
10. Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, Tsits Eliezer, vol. 9 (Jerusalem: 1985), section 46.
11. Iggerot Moshe, Yoreh De'ah, part II, chapter 146.
12. Iggerot Moshe, Yorch De'ah, part III, chapter 132.
13. American Academy of Neurology, "Practice parameters for determining brain death in adults," Neurology 45 (1995): 1012-1014.
14. Editorial, "Brain Death," Lancet, February 14, 1981: 363-365.
15. See note 21. Peter Mcl. Black, "Brain death," New England Journal of Medicine, 299:7 (1978): 338-344.
16. James. L. Bernat, Charles. M. Culver and Bernard Gert, "On the definition and criterion of death," Annals of Internal Medicine 94: 389-394.
17. A. Earl Walker, Earl L. Diamond, and John Moseley, "The ncuropatholog-ical findings in irreversible coma," Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology 34 (1975): 295-322.
18. D. Alan Shewmon, "Chronic brain death: meta-analysis and conceptual consequences," Neurology 51 (1998): 1538-1545.
19. Eelco F. M. Wijdicks, Letter, "The diagnosis of brain death," New England Journal of Medicine 345:8 (2001): 617-618.
20. Eelco F. M. Wijdicks, L.D. Atkinson LD, and H. Okazaki, "Isolated medulla oblongata function after severe traumatic brain injury," Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 70 (2001): 127-129.
21. Eelco F. M. Wijdicks, "The diagnosis of brain death," New England Journal of Medicine 344:16 (2001): 1215-1221.
22. Hans J. Gramm, Harold Meinhold, Ulrich Bickel, Jurgen Zimmerman, Birgit von Hammerstein, Frieder Keller et al., "Acute endocrine failure after brain death," Transplantation 54:5 (1992): 851-857.
23. Robert D. Truog, "Is it time to abandon brain death?" Hastings Center Review 27:1 (1997): 29-37.
24. Kristan M. Outwater and Mark A. Rockoff, "Diabetes insipidus accompanying brain death in children," Neurology 34 (1984): 143-146.
25. H. Schrader, K. Krogress, A. Aakvaag, O. Sortland, K. Purvis, "Changes of pituitary hormones in brain death," Acta Neurochirugie (Wien) 52:3-4 (1980): 239-248.
26. S. H. Pennfather, J. H. Dark, R. E. Bullock, "Haemodynamic responses to surgery in brain dead organ donors," Anaesthesia 48 (1993): 1034-1038.
27. D. J. Hill, R. Munglani, and D. Sapsford, Correspondence to "Haemodynamic responses to surgery in brain-dead donors," Anaesthesia 49 (1994): 835-836.
28. G. F. Molinari, "The NINCDS Collaborative Study of brain death: A historical perspective," in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NINCDS monograph No. 24, NIH publication No. 81-2286 (1980): 1-32.
29. See note 23. James L. Bernat, "Defense of the whole-brain concept of death," Hastings Center Report 28:2 (1998): 14-23.
30. Alexander M. Capron, "Brain death-well settled yet still unresolved," New England Journal of Medicine 344:16 (2001): 1244-1246.
31. Ronald Cranford, "Even the dead are not terminally ill anymore," Neurology 51 (1998): 1530-1531.
32. A. Earl Walker, "The neurosurgeon's responsibility for organ procurement," Journal of Neurosurgery 44 (1976): 1-2.
33. H. Kerridge, P. Saul, M. Lowe, J. McPhee, and D. Williams, "Death, dying and donation: organ transplantation and the diagnosis of death," Journal of Medical Ethics 28 (2002): 89-94.