The Canadian Medical Association says the case of a Winnipeg man being kept on life support by a court injunction could set a dangerous precedent that would force physicians to provide futile or even potentially harmful medical care when a family demands it.
The debate revolves around Shmuel Golubchuk, an 84-year-old man whose doctors say has limited brain function, can’t walk or eat, breathes only with the help of a respirator and, except for a Nes, is unlikely to recover. He has been on life support since early November. His family says “it’s a violation of their Orthodox Jewish faith to remove him from life support”, and their lawyer, Neil Kravetsky, argued in court this week that to do so would constitute assault and battery. The family believes it would be murder.
Neil Kravetsky, told a hearing in Winnipeg that the law defines an assault as touching someone without consent – and the proposed actions of the hospital border on a criminal offence.
The lawyer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, which oversees the Grace General Hospital where Golubchuk is a patient, says physicians have the sole right to make decisions about treatment – even if it goes against a patients religious beliefs.
Justice Perry Schulman reserved his decision on a motion by the man’s children to maintain life support following a five-hour hearing that ran into the early evening.
The judge decided to take some time to think about the request of the Golubchuk family to maintain life support for their father. It is a difficult case, as most of these kind are, because it pits the belief of a family against the ethics and medical opinion of a doctor – both parties believe they are acting in the patients interest.
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4 Responses
Make your ‘Living Will’ NOW to avoid, choliloh, such circumstances. Living Wills, in the UK at least are gaining popularity as no-one has the right to overturn them.
“belief of family against ethics of doctors”?
Clearly this is a bias article
A very sad story, made only more difficult when religion and medicine clash. A little over three years ago I went thru a similar experience when my wife (only 59) was dying. Sloan Kettering in NYC appeared at times to be pushing me to turn off life support. I am Jewish but not of an Orthodox background but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know right from wrong. I appealed to those I know in the Orthodox community and sought out their knowledge and that also of the hospital’s Jewish chaplain, who explained what the rules are from a religious perspective. My overall feeling was that the Doctors wanted the bed space made available (some of the foreign doctors were the worst) and that the hosital’s main concern was to cover themselves legally (the hospital would not declare her dead) I really feel for this family!!
This is a tragic story. Doctors need to create a suitable partnership with Orthodox rabbis so that the appropriate halachic approach may be followed, there need not be a clash here. It is because of this that BH I have written a book “The Fox, the Foetus and the Fatal Injection” (launched 20th Jan ’08) that deals precisely with these issues. It addresses the fact that sadly many are more concerened with fox hunting than the 44 million abortions that take place each year worldwide and with the issue of assisted dying and euthanasia. The book follows a Torah approach and amongst other things addresses the issue of withdrawing life support.
If you are interested in the book please email at [email protected]
Best wishes,
Daniel
Rabbi Danel Levy UHC Leeds, UK.