Is it mutar to be an organ donor?

Seems to me that most poskim hold it is assur, but that there are some who hold it is muttar. I have seen a “halachic organ donor” something or another. But my rebbeim never said to do it.

coffee, I expected you to say something about donating your piano too.

because we believe in techias hamesim and how will your body dig itselg out (burry with a branch in hand to dig our way out) if you are missing body parts

if for whatever reason ch”v somebody looses a leg or st they burry it i guess so the person will have it after techias hamesim

Tricky tricky tricky… Although there are many things that can be donated without technically being injurious or fatal to a patient (cornea, piece of the liver, skin, blood vessels, one lung, one kidney, yada yada yada…), at the time this decision becomes relevant, a person might be considered a goses in which they are not even allowed to be touched for fear that even a touch might cause them to die. I’m pretty sure that after actual death though, (yeah yeah the whole death controversy) nothing can be harvested. IMHO, Im no Rabbi.

Organ donations after death should be a Chiyuv because of Pikuach Nefesh. And in a case where there is no Jew in need of a kidney or lung, it is still a Chiyuv of Pikuach Nefesh Mishum Eivah. Even now, many countries won’t send organs to Israel because too many Jews aren’t donors. It’s a complete Pikuach Nefesh. Hands down.

Hands down, huh?

Why would you make a statement like that, when you know very well that most poskim hold you should not?

If the donor is truly dead and the issue is only Kavod haMeis, there are grounds to permit it due to Pikuach Nefesh. However, most organs can only be donated while the heart is still beating. According to most Poskim that brain death is not dead in Halacha, this is murdering one person to save another and is not permitted.

Syag,

Good point

Sam2 -“PBA: I have spoken personally to many leading Poskim about this.”

And did they agree with you or hold you are wrong?

Sam2,

1) would have expected you to say its darkei hoemori, that seems to be your standard response of late.

2) Its nice to say that you spoke to many poskim, you don’t say who they are. More importantly, and this is telling, you didn’t say that the agree with you. Which would be a pretty good indication, to me at least, that they did not agree with your hypothesis. Also known as a “boich sevarah”

3) You did not deal with the real issue which is why your svoroh is completely baseless. Pikuach nefesh is not docheh retzicha. Organs used for transplant are almost always harvested while the donor is still halachacially alive thereby killing the donor. That is the issue that has to be dealt with. Your ignoring the real issue makes your agenda transparent. BTW human sacrifice is also ossur mdarkei hoemori,

Buried with a branch in hand…. never heard of this. Is this a valid minhag of certain groups, or is it like having a bell line?

a heimish mom: i suggest you learn more about the over 200 orthodox rabbis that allow organ donations. please visit teh halachik organ donor website which identified them. you will find that calling them fringe rabbis is really a big mistake.

All the rabbis allowing this are pretty much MO rabbis.

mo, or, rr, It’s called Yeshiva World News

Cessation of breathing is the criterion (R’ Dovid Feinstein in his father’s name).”

Many people (heart attack, drowning, or choking victims for example) have stopped breathing, but can be resuscitated. That does not sound like the best criteria. Is there more to that definition alone that you did not post?

PBA: I have spoken personally to many leading Poskim about this. I feel it is a tremendous Pikuach Nefesh and that any Posek who refuses to let people do this is Machshil es Harabbim and Gorem Sakanas Nefashos for many Jews, especially those in Eretz Yisrael where European countries won’t send organs because a very high percentage of Israelis (mostly the communities whose Rabbis won’t let them donate organs) refuse to be organ donors.

Sam: I am going to blast you. It doesn’t mean I don’t respect you; it just means I’d like to impress you with how wrong you are here.

I get that some poskim hold it is muttar, and even a mitzva. And that according to those poskim it is sakanas nefashos perhaps.

That does not mean that the rov poskim who hold it is assur are being machshil people. This is a valid machlokes- you will not find poskim holding that the other side is illegitimate, as you make it out to be.

You really should have more respect for poskim who disagree with poskim who you agree with. Particularly since your agreement or disagreement is really just a matter of liking the outcome in the case. (Sorry, I know you know a lot of torah, but you are not competent to take sides in this, and that is just how it is.)

PBA: I understand. I know that I get a ton of flak for this opinion. I also feel that voicing this opinion is more than worth it. It’s not that I feel that the other side is Halachically illegitimate. I just feel (very, very, strongly) that they have missed the point, are not completely aware of the physical facts, and have therefore created a situation where Israel is denied organs to save Jewish lives because too many Jews won’t be organ donors. They might have valid claims, but I have yet to hear one (T’chiyas Hameisim, Kavod Hameis, Nivul Hameis, and a few others I won’t repeat here) that would be enough to stop someone from saving a life. Not calling brain stem death Misah is a valid argument but someone can have a card saying that organs can only be donated after cessation of a heartbeat. I see no reason whatsoever to oppose such a thing. Nivul Hameis/T’chiyas Hameisim should never be enough to allow a person to die.

From Wikipedia:

The rate of agreement to organ donation is only 45%, which is 50% lower than the rate in most Western countries.[7] The percentage of people who hold an organ donation card in Israel is only 10 percent;[8][9] in Western countries the rate is 30-40%. As a result, there are about 1,000 Israelis currently on the “waiting list” for organs, and it is estimated that roughly 10% of them die annually, due to a lack of donations.[3]

That’s 100 precious Neshamos every year that could have lived longer.

“I am sure Hashem has enough kidneys in his bank account for me.”

Tell that to the scores of Yidden who have been anxiously waiting for many months and longer for a compatible kidney donor. Time is running out for them.

Mr.Sam2

Since no doctor accepts the halachic defintion of death, we are in no position to permit organs donations which are done by doctors without any regard for halacha.

The overwhelming majority of leading poskim reject brain death. Even if you accept brain death at some point, there’s a whole separate issue of allowing the doctors to determine when brain death is.

Since a majority of poskim prohibit organ donation, (among them Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Eliezer Waldenberg who were very close to many medical experts) it is prohibited to donate organs.

PS I’ll take the gehenim for all those who follow the leading poskim and are asked after 120 why they listened to them and not sam2!

The issue is that taking an organ will kill the person (i.e. cause heart failure.)

Is there more to that definition alone that you did not post?

Good point. I suppose he means irreversible cessation of breathing. Otherwise, a person holding his breath would be halachically dead.

Saying Hashem can heal is nonsense

Should one not take Medicine, because HASHEM CAN HEAL?

What if someone says, I dont want Chemo because only hashem can heal….

Surgery should be prohinited because “HASEHM CAN HEAL”

cherrybim -“Highly inappropriate and insensitive comment in light of those Yidden who are critically ill.”

No, it’s not. Practice what you preach!

Zahavasdad,

I don’t think you meant it the way it came out, so I’ll explain where I think you misunderstood popa.

I think you understood him to mean that since we rely on Hashem, we don’t need to do organ donations. By extension, we shouldn’t need to go to doctors either, you point out, which proves the fallacy of the original assumption.

However, popa didn’t mean that we don’t do organ donations because Hashem heals anyway. He meant that we don’t do organ donations because we hold they are assur. Even if we would end up causing loss of human life, we would still follow halacha (such as in a case where avodah zarah, giluy arayos, or shfichas domim come into conflict with pikuach nefesh).

What popa is adding, however, is that he doesn’t believe that the Ribono Shel Olam will allow anybody to die as a result of His children following His rules, and that He has at His disposal any number of ways to heal someone. I agree with popa.

Popa, correct me if I misunderstood you.

R’ Moshe Feinstein in a T’shuva (YD 2:174) http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=919&st=&pgnum=290, says that it is in fact a mitzva to donate an organ after death to save a life. The issue is that the organs are largely useless after complete cessation of heart function.

Many want to claim that brain stem death is Halachic death even while there is still heart function, (organs donated at this point would still be valuable). Some claim that this position was agreed to by R’ Moshe. But whether R’ Moshe actually held this position although he never wrote it clearly in a T’shuva is a matter of great controversy and is at the heart of the debate about Halachic organ donation.