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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Healing: Natural Selection vs. Human |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz asks whether we should just allow nature to take its place and select out the strongest from society or we should treat medical illnesses through human intervention. Though the Bible and Talmud seem to indicate that medical treatment is permissible, the Rabbi cites several biblical and midrashic sources that suggest that medical treatment may lead the ill to neglect to seek G-d's healing. The Rabbi cites Maimonides' reconciliation of some of these sources. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:18:16 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2598 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Healing: Natural Selection vs. Human |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz asks whether we should just allow nature to take its place and select out the strongest from society or we should treat medical illnesses through human intervention. Though the Bible and Talmud seem to indicate that medical treatment is permissible, the Rabbi cites several biblical and midrashic sources that suggest that medical treatment may lead the ill to neglect to seek G-d's healing. The Rabbi cites Maimonides' reconciliation of some of these sources. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:11:31 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2561 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Healing: Natural Selection vs. Human |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz cites R' Nachman from Breslav's complex opinion regarding the advisability of seeking medical treatment. The Rabbi suggests that ill people should indeed seek medical treatment and quotes a source from the Talmud supporting this idea which states that people should not live in a town that does not have a doctor. He concludes by arguing that rather than being viewed as a destroyer of nature, man should be viewed as having an obligation to perfect nature. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:10:17 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2588 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Healing as a Mandate: A Doctor's Call |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz discusses the influence of a doctor's obligation to heal on the permissibility of a doctor to strike, to receive payment, and to retire. He suggests that there is no obligation to study medicine, but once one has the knowledge one is obligated to use it to treat those in need. The Rabbi concludes by citing a Talmudic source that suggests that a doctor that is paid will have greater incentive to develop his knowledge. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:09:21 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2150 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Healing as a Mandate: Malpractice |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz raises the question of whether a doctor may be sued for mistakes caused by him during treatment. He suggests that if the doctor has religious and human permission to do the work, he cannot be blamed or sued for any damage or death that might result from medical interventions he administers. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:08:19 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2361 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Man's Lease on His Body |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz argues that only G-d owns the bodies of human beings. If man only has a temporary "lease over his body," does he have the right to injure himself or allow someone else to cause injury to him? The Rabbi suggests that medical treatments that involve some form of injurious side-effect would be permitted if they serve higher values such as preserving the health of the body and saving one's life. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:07:30 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2407 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: On Family or Doctors Making Decisions |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz suggests that though doctors and family members typically have no special right over the body of their patients and family members, in certain situations they, as the closest legal guardians, would be given permission to make decisions regarding them. The Rabbi cites several examples in which people are obligated to make medical decisions for those in need of medical treatment because those in need do not have the capacity to consent to measures that would preserve their health. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:06:15 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2221 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: On Suicide and Abortion |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz states that suicide is not any more permissible than is murder. Tangentially, he argues that even if one were to disregard the question of whether a fetus possesses independent life, the fetus is considered a biological part of its mother and therefore aborting it would be considered self-inflicted damage to the mother's body. Killing the fetus would thus be at least equivalent to cutting off the mother's finger, which would only be permissible if the well-being of the woman is in danger. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:05:10 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2284 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Cosmetic Surgery |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz raises the question of whether cosmetic surgery is permissible, considering that it involves a certain amount of self-harm and self-endangerment. The Rabbi claims that the permissibility of such a surgery is decided based on a comparison of the current physical and psychological "damage" to the potential damages that such a surgery might cause. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 12:04:07 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2207 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: The Human Body After Death |
| Rabbi Steinsaltz discusses the status of the human body after death as a source of defilement rather than holiness. He suggests that any abuse of a dead body is contrary to the Jewish principle of "Honoring Creatures" (Kavod HaBriyot) because it is equivalent to abusing a defenseless person. He touches on the question of whether an autopsy may be performed in order to save another patient's life and whether the opinions of the family of the deceased may influence such a decision. |
| Date: 2008-11-06 11:58:51 - Added by: Guest |
| Views: 2396 - Votes: 0 - Rating: 0 |
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