EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
Ethically Speaking
"When somebody is sick and you can help, you are com-
he topic intrigued me: Jewish biomedical ethics.
manded
to do so."
I admit I didn't know exactly what that meant,
He
said
the Jewish obligation to heal is derived from
but it piqued my interest, so that's the Super
21:18-19.
He said that obligation was reinforced by
Exodus
Oneg program I chose to attend at Temple Israel
Maimonides,
the
12th-century
philosopher and physician
last Shabbat. .
and
one
of
our
people's
greatest
thinkers, who believed that
And I wasn't disappointed.
we're
obligated
to
restore
the
health
of others to the best of
Jerrold Weinberg, a medical doctor for more than 30
our
ability.
According
to
Maimonides,
if a neighbor needs
years, provided an insightful look into how ancient texts
care,
we
must
provide
aggressive
treatment
or enlist some-
have influenced modern medicine.
one
who
can.
The West Bloomfield temple offered three Super Oneg
That is why assisted suicide breaks from the biblical
programs following Friday night services in keeping with
ofpikuach nefesh (saving a life) and the
commandment
Detroit Jewry's Synagogue 2000 efforts.
physician's
mandate
to heal, Dr. Weinberg said.
S2K is a national push to make the syna-
"It's
unequivocally
clear from Halachah that permis-
gogue a more enriching, engaging part of
sion
is
granted
to
a
physician
to treat a patient only
our lives.
when
he
can
offer
the
patient
therapy
that can be rea-
Setting the stage for us was Dr.
sonably
expected
to
be
efficacious.
If
you
cannot help
Weinberg, an obstetrician-gynecologist
somebody,
you
are
commanded
not
to
interfere
with the
who trained under renowned practitioner
process — although you can alleviate pain, even if you
Dr. Alfred Sherman, the ob-gyn depart-
can't cure."
ment chair of the former Sinai Hospital of
ROBERT A. Detroit.
SKLAR
When Death Calls
"The technology of medicine is moving
Editor
We didn't have time to explore or debate the Jewish view of
rapidly and we have all these new tools,"
abortion, cloning, autopsy or stem-cell research, but we did
said Dr. Weinberg, Temple Israel's new
delve into issues surrounding end of life.
president. "So the question isn't so much how to do some-
In that regard, Dr. Weinberg called on his mentor, Dr.
thing, but why do it and when to do it. You have to under-
Sherman, who was in the audience. Dr. Sherman
stand the effect of these new tools; otherwise, they
told about a very ill man who wanted to die, "but
can become very, very dangerous things."
then got an invitation to his daughter's wedding.
Acknowledging that the subject matter is open to
Hoping to be there when his daughter got married
interpretation, the doctor then wove Halachah
was enough to change his mind on dying."
(Jewish law) and God into the quilt of understand-
Dr. Weinberg said people contemplating sui-
ing he had laid out before us. I settled in because I
cide have two fears: loneliness and pain. But if
knew the limits of my medical comprehension
they have family, friends or caregivers they can
would be stretched by the vigor of our discussion.
count on, and relief from pain, they no longer
I easily understood the role that God plays in
Dr. Jerr old
feel helpless and, "the vast, vast majority of the
helping us make ethical medical decisions. But I
Weinbe rg
time," will want to keep living. He called the
couldn't pinpoint the'relevance of halachic princi-
concept of hospice "a wonderful source of care"
ples to modern-day transplants, ventilators and
for the dying and its caregivers "unbelievably good peo-
robot-assisted surgeries.
Dr. Weinberg quickly got me on track, saying: "Human
ple."
We then got into the nitty-gritty of free will versus reli-
nature is not any different — people then had the same
gious obligation, of keeping gravely ill, but clear-thinking
kind of ethical problems that we have today. They didn't
people alive against their wishes. "Keeping somebody alive
have the technology, but they were just as smart and just as
artificially is not a religious proscription," Dr. Weinberg
clever — sometimes more so."
said.
Ethics deals in relationships between people — the idea
"The fact you can keep somebody alive doesn't mean you
of maximizing the positive and minimizing the negative.
"It's like negotiating," he said. "It's a matter of pleasing the
are obligated to, if it takes extraordinary means," he said.
"If you have to put somebody on a machine to keep him
most amount of people and doing the least amount of
alive, then it becomes very difficult, because the question
damage."
then is when to pull the plug. The big decision is whether
Judaism brings God into the relationship, he added.
to put him on the ventilator at all."
For me, memories were stirred of struggling with that
Role Of Healing
very
question in the case of my mother.
The tenor of what we were discussing then took a sharp
Ultimately,
Dr. Weinberg said, patient wishes need to be
turn when the doctor asked, "Does man have the right to
respected.
But
that doesn't mean others who care can't talk
heal at all?"
frankly
with
the
patient about life-extending choices — or
Sure, I thought. But I was silently searching for a cogent
can't
openly
disagree.
explanation. And it came. Dr. Weinberg said praying when
"Autonomy is a very important principle," the doctor
we're sick, and letting God alone decide whether to heal us,
said.
"Ethics is a balance of very important principles."
is not the Jewish way.
But
there can be more than one "right" decision in a
"God created your body, and your role is to take good
medical
case. So the bottom line, always, is deciding which
care of yourself," he said. "You shouldn't be doing anything
way
to
go,
he said.
against God's will — like not taking care of yourself."
If
the
purpose
of this Super Oneg program was to get me
We not only have the right to heal ourselves, but also the
to
think
more
deeply
about the range of life and death
obligation to help others. "There's no such thing as the
issues,
it
succeeded.
❑
Good Samaritan rule in Judaism," Dr. Weinberg said.
T
Jimmy Choo
Robert Clergerie
Sigerson • Morrison
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Miu Miu
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2002
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