The family of 18-year-old Matan Ben-Simon z”l has released a statement denying that their late son’s organs were used to save the life of an avreich or anyone else for that matter.
Last week, YWN-ISRAEL quoted a Chadrei Chareidim report that stated the organs of the young man killed in an accident in Eilat while vacationing were used to save the lives of others. The story was carried by a number of media agencies.
According to Rafi Meira, an employee of the Kiryat Malachi Cemetery, no such thing occurred, explaining he did the tahara. Meira is quoted by Kikar Shabbat as saying that when he prepared the young man for kvura, all his organs were intact and there were no signs of an organ transplant of any kind. Media sources quote the bereaved parents as saying the same thing, insisting “We buried Matan whole”.
It is added that kvura took place the same night the young man was killed; seeking to state there was no delay to permit doctors to harvest his organs.
The family was quite angered by the story, seemingly uncertain as to its origin.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Just goes to show how much we can trust the news.
i dont get it. why wouldnt the family be proud that their family member did the mitzvah of organ donation?
So what’s true, this story, or the original one? 😉
besalel: Despite what is secularly considered one of the greatest good deeds one can do, our poskim have concluded that organ donation is assur. The fringe that do not hold this way are, unfortunately, misguided. I think organ donation is a wonderful thing and would sign up for it in a heartbeat if it was mutar. But it is not. Donate blood or a kidney. Nothing after death. As much as it does seem “wrong” that we take but don’t give, remember that the world was created for the Yidden. Animals are there to be shechted and eaten, the development of organ transplantation is also there for us to use – from the goyim, not TO anybody. It may be difficult for some of us to rationalize to ourselves, but the din is what it is and we need to accept it.