A specialist has resigned from a Winnipeg hospital rather than obey a court order to continue treating an elderly man on life support.
In his resignation letter, Dr. Anand Kumar says continuing court-ordered efforts to keep Samuel Golubchuk alive are “grotesque” and “an abomination.”
The 84-year-old Golubchuk has been on life support with minimal brain function at the Grace Hospital since last fall.
Doctors at the hospital wanted to take him off life support, but Golubchuk’s relatives have argued that would violate his beliefs as an Orthodox Jew.
In February, a judge ordered the hospital to continue treating Golubchuk until a trial can be held.
Kumar can still practice at other hospitals – his resignation means he will no longer use his privileges at the Grace.
(Canadian Press / Lipas)
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34 Responses
What a farce. He hasn’t even resigned, just attempted a media/judicial ploy in their continuing attempts to murder this elderly patient.
sammygol – Do not be fooled by this so-called doctors ploy. He in fact has not resigned. This is just a ploy to enforce his attempted murder. He is still working for the hospital. If you parse this ploy carefully you will notice he merely “resigned” from working on the patient he is trying to kill. He did NOT give up his job. Look at this story for a bit of what this clown did: http://www.cjob.com/News/Local/Story.aspx?ID=1010659
sammygol
This is not proffesionalism, this is propagandaism. I bet you this does not affect his financial security and future career or else he would not have done this. In fact he probably feels that this helps his career.
sammygol (#1),
do you also respect the professional integrity of Dr. Kevorkian who went to jail rather than stop assisting his patients in commiting suicide???
when it came to murdering Yidden, the defense always was “just following orders” when it comes to the “grotesque” and “abomination.”
of keeping a Yid alive, the repsonse is to quit rather then follow the orders.
Whether the Doc is honorable or not, we must redouble efforts to support this patient’s family ensure he is not euthanized. Don’t let the hospital board be influenced by his “principled stand” but retake the moral high ground and reassert that worldwide Jewry does not want this man to be killed.
Can someone repost the relevant contact details so we can show our support for his continued treatment?
#6 illini – Check out the link I posted above. He has not “resigned” in any sense of that word. He is still fully employed and salaried. This was a ploy.
Sammygol,
while I respect your decision to not recieve information from any other source, I also do not trust the YW fully. The problem with news is that with the media “when they own the information, they can bend it all they want.” Having not had the time yet to read the other article myself, I cannot support either of you. You just might want to consider (funny as it sounds), being a little more cynical when it comes to news reports
Ladies and Gents,
Socialized medicine will lead to this happening. We CANNOT allow it to come to the USA.
illini07: is Samuel Golubchuk alive? the answer is yes. removing life support will shorten his life. shortening life is called murder.
illini07, you are clearly living in a different reality.
The CJOB news article says “However, a WRHA spokesperson says Kumar contiues to work at the authority, and will take patients at the Grace”, so in what sense has he resigned?
And what has time of death got to do with this? Were do you get that there’s anyone claiming that Mr Golubchuk is already dead? Dr Kumar doesn’t seem to claim he’s already dead; just that he OUGHT to be dead soon.
And Sammygol, what is there to admire about someone’s dedication to making sure there’s one more dead Jew in the world? On the contrary, this dedication shows his perversity and viciousness, like when the Nazis diverted precious resources in the middle of a battle in order to FLY Jews from Tunisia to Auschwitz.
sorry sammy: nope, that would actually be the 14 hour day school.
also, mark levin: while their are numerous problems with socialized medicine, this is not one of the issues (the main problems are long waits, and the govt paying for ridiculous things such as just last week, they paid 25 grand (canadian or american its the same) to send a fat man to the US to participate in a weight loss program. want to explain that to me?)
People here make a mistkae in assuming that Halach applies to non-Jews. The Canadian governemnt, indeed Canadian society is not bound by Halachik definitions of life and death. While clearly even the most liberal interpretation of the Iggrot Moshe (as advanced by his son in law) would still mandate preserving Mr. Golubchuk’s life, Dr. Kumar is free to follow his conscience. But I wonder how Dr. Kumar might feel if his child/spouse/parent/best friend were in Mr. Golubchuk’s place and the decision to terminate life support were in the hands of his (Kumar’s)mortal enemy or someone who’s judgment Dr. Kumar did not respect? What might be a “grotesque abomination then?” An idiot/scoundrel in a lab coat is just that.
cantoresq – Gentiles are bound by the sheva mitzvos bnei noach. One of those 7 laws is not to kill. So the halachic definition of life (like the 7 laws themselves) ARE binding on them.
cantoresq – The sheva mitzvos bnei noach are binding upon the gentiles. One of those mitzvos is not to kill. Therefore, the halachic definition of life, like the 7 laws themselves, are applicable the gentile society.
Joseph, the Noachide prohibition on murder is tied into the injunction of Dinim, that the gentiles establish courts of law and legal systems. The gentiles have the right, indeed the mandate, to define what type of homocide is murder, the degree of the murder and the punishment for it. They don’t have to follow Halachik definitions in doing so.
cantoresq – Based on your (mis-)understanding of the 7 laws, the gentiles could redefine murder into some loose definition where your typical run of the mill homicide would then be defined as a nonpunishable and acceptable “honor killing”.
Take some Arab countries where honor killing is the legally accepted law of the land. It is fully legal for a brother to kill his sister if she elopes with a lower caste serf. (Let us not get grounded in the intricate details of any interpretation of Islamic law, but for the purposes of our conversation assume this or something close to it is indeed the case.) You would them absolve this brother of violating the Noachide law against murder.
The fact is the Noachide law of establishing courts of law is another (and separate) of the 7 laws. That Noachide law does not give the gentiles license to define or redefine the other 6 laws to their liking. In fact, as sammygol eloquently described in #22, in fact the interpretation of the Noachide laws are not dependent upon the gentiles but rather are set and enforced (in a righteous world) by the Jewish courts based upon halacha as it pertains th the sheva mitzvos.
sammygol, I’m not sure that gentile authorities are obligated to enforce the Halachik obligations of the Noachide Code. Rather, I believe that the Halachot to which you refer in post #21 would be properly enforced by Beth Din or the Sanhedrin as applied to a gentile living in Eretz Yisrael.
this is what doctors are tought today. they have no concept of yeshuas hashem kerev ayin.
by the way , it is very easy to sit and write weather the doctor is right or wrong for his actions but how many people on yeshivaworld.com ever had to make such a decision.
charliehall – it hardly does much better. How many people must die waiting months to see a Doctor in Canada because of their socialized medicine? The rich in Canada come to the goold ‘ol USA for their serious medical care due to the long lines there.
Sammy Goul,
You wrote “While we may rightfully disagree with the physician’s refusal to treat, I have to say that I respect his professionalism, as he staked his job and his future career by taking this action.”
Do you also respect the professionalism and attention to detail of the Nazis as well? How can you even admire one iota of a murderer?
Sammy, forget your ability to craft beautifully written daggers. Your feeling Jewish heart needs to be warmed up.
#29, your obnoxious references to my avocational pursuits, notwithstanding, I will make it a point of checking Aaron Lichtenstein’s (not the R”Y at Har Etzion) book on the Noachide Code for further elicudation and report back on it. It’s been a while since I read it. Lichtenstein, is the authoritative scholarly text on the subject. It’s based on the famous teshuva of R. Elijah Benamozegh to a prospective proselyte, convincing him to rather adhere to the Code than convert to Judaism.
sammygol,
I still don’t understand what you admire about in this doc. He wasn’t standing up for the rule of law – the rule of law in Canada ALLOWS him to cease treatments without being arrested for murder but I assume it doesn’t mandate that treatment MUST cease.
Would you be impressed or simply understanding of a doctor who refused to treat your partially decomposed Thaoist friend?
I think he was standing up for the principle of having doctors – as opposed to the family and/or religious beliefs of the patient – determine when to stop treating a patient. Standing up for those principles is nothing to be impressed by – it is a clearly slippery slope which can easily lead to situations where doctors can decide, to use your example, that anyone older than 82.75 should be euthanized. Or as Dr. Mengelle YM”SH decided, that all jews should be euthanized.
Feeble Minded Sammy Goulish,
Again, let’s take it very very slowly. Leave your fancy knowledge about Taoism out of it. My question to you is very simple: How can you possibly even look to see good in a person who refuses to continue life preserving treatment on a living patient? Your sense of moral equivalency is unfortunately very out of touch for a thinking feeling Yid. Sammy a little introspection wouldn’t hurt.
>>”I have to say that I respect his professionalism”
>>”Somehow, this Dr. Kumar didn;t invoke a Hefsed Meruba clause. ”
— sammygol in post #1
that sounds like admiration to me.
Sammy Goulish,
You so eloquently write “So, before calling him a murderer, or something nicer, perhaps, how many of us are ready to forfeit their financial security for an adherence to Halacha,”
Many suicide bombers (I guess you would refer to them as freedom fighters)give up a lot more for what they believe in.
#37, in #1 you used “respect”, which is a synonym of admiration.
#42, Actually NO medical societies in the world consider this patient dead.
Where did you come up with that one?
Where on earth are you people getting the idea that Kumar doesn’t consider the patient alive? I don’t see any such claim in the article. Are you just making this up? By what standard is he not alive? As far as I can tell Kumar doesn’t deny that Mr Golubchuk is alive, he just thinks it’s a waste of his time and the hospital’s resources to keep him that way.
Mr. Sammy Gol – When you disagree with Merriam-Webster, I’ll stick with the authority (despite any cute sounding liners you concoct.)
A synonym of admiration is respect:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/admiration
P.S. I haven’t stated English isn’t my forte. Perhaps alzheimers caused your mix up?
Sam:
U seem to think that your one-punchers are a knockout. it may get a laugh, but it does an injustice to the issue especially when you are wrong.
I checked the Lichtenstein book. The book is called The Laws of Noah by Aron Lichtenstein. It was published by Z Berman and Co. Lichtenstein, who learned in Chaim Berlin was a professor at CCNY. It seems that there is a Machloket between the Rambam and Ramban as to what is in included in the Noachide command of Dinim. Rambam seems to hold that non-Jews are merely obligated to enforce the other six commandments and nothing more. Ramban clearly holds that Dinim is an injunction to create a full fledged legal system. The Rema and most authorities it seems agree with Ramban. As regards those sub-commands within each of the Noachide commandments, The Rema says that gentiles can enact their own laws to the extent that they do not contradict Torah mandates, which are clearly different for Jew and Gentile. As to how this would play out in the Golubchuk case, I’m not sure, since the Torah prohibition on murder does not explicitely ban passive killing (i.e. witholding medical treatment), and Poskim are divided on the issue as well. J. David Bleich holds that not implanting a feeding tube, for example is Halachik murder, while I’ve been told other poskim might disagree. Thus it seems reasonable to conclude that Canada might be within the Noachide Code in its enactments.
As a postscript, in the interest of intellectual honesty, while I did not originally intend this meaning, when I wrote comment #20, it is accurate as far as it goes. Noachide law is not Halacha. Sammygol has provided a few examples of where the two diverge. Thus it is fair to say that gentiles are not bound by Halacha. The mistake in my formulation was that I was under the mistaken impression that the mitzvah of Dinim allows gentiles virtually free reign to enact laws as they deem fit and appropriate, so long as they vaguely comport with general principles of law and justice. While the Rambam might agree with that formulation, it seems the overwhelming wieght of authority holds otherwise.
Here is the sefer being sought:
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Laws-Noah-Aaron-Lichtenstein/dp/B00071QH6S