Organ donation honors dead
By Deborah Moon Seldner
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Under the concept of pikuach nefesh (saving human life), organ donation is universally accepted, and from some perspectives required, according to two rabbis at the North American Jewish Cemetery and Hevra Kiddisha Conference held in Portland June 11-13.
In the Conservative movement, "Organ donation is not only permissible, but is actually a positive obligation—a mitzvah," said Rabbi Elliot Dorf, co-chair of the Dept. of Bioethics at the University of Judaism.
Though many Jews mistakenly believe that the prohibition against desecrating a body and honoring the dead forbids organ donation, Dorf said, on the contrary, "because you are helping save someone else's life, it (organ donation) is an honor due to the dead."
"Every rabbi I know asserts that Jewish law at least permits, and in our case requires it," said Dorf, who during spoke at the conference on end-of-life medical decisions.
Rabbi Joseph Ozarowski, who serves as the Rabbinic Chaplain to the Jewish Healing Network of Chicago and is the rabbi of an Orthodox shul, agreed that organ donation is universally supported across the Jewish spectrum, though he said some Orthodox rabbis still have issues surrounding the point of death.
Ozarowski said that some Orthodox rabbis who continue to rely on the classic cardio-pulmonary definition of death rather than the modern medical definition of brain death, forbid organ donation as long as the heart is beating even if the person is brain dead and on life support.
The point of death is an issue because once life support is removed and the heart stops beating, the heart is no longer a candidate for transplantation.
"Kidney and cornea donations are well accepted," he said. "Heart and liver—organs that life depends on—are tougher."
"In the past 25 years there has been a move toward accepting brain death," said Ozarowsky.
Dorf said the issue over point of death is becoming less controversial all the time.
"The Chief Rabbi of Israel approved heart transplants in 1989," said Dorf, saying that clearly accepts brain death criterion for the moment of death.