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NEWS
Torah World Protests New Initiative to Legitimize "Brain Death"
By Yechiel Sever
Recent media reports claim that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has recognized the cessation of brain activity as a sign of death, even though current and former gedolei Yisroel declared firmly that as long as the heart is beating the person should be considered alive and organs may not be taken out. Since the halachic criterion for death makes it much harder to secure organs for transplanting, there is tremendous pressure from the medical profession to consider the cessation of brain activity as the marker of death.
A year-and-a-half ago in Adar, Maran HaRav Eliashiv shlita issued a short letter affirming his earlier position: "I hereby reiterate my position, as I already expressed it on 18 Av, 5751, that according to our holy Torah as long as the heart is beating, even if the patient is in a state of `brain death,' there is no hetter to take out any limb or organ from the patient. May Hashem Yisborach restore the breaches of His people."
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