Brain death and its halachic reality

Physical health is a priority in Judaism. This is a prime belief in our faith. Nothing in Jewish law inhibits the maintenance of the quality of one’s physical life. Thus, this week’s review focuses on an anthology, “Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Brain Death,” recently issued by the International Rabbinic Fellowship and published by Maggid Books under the skilled chief editorship of Gila Fine.

This volume, in four sections, deals with the following aspects of this most sensitive of issues, long debated among rabbis: 

1. The Medico-Legal Issues

2. General Halachic Responsa

3. A Look At The Poskim

4. The Historical Ethical Considerations.

Each section includes essays by leading rabbinic authorities touching on the highly venerated opinions and Piskei Torah of Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yosef Soloveitchik, Rav Herschel Schachter, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rav Aharon Soloveichik and Rav Immamuel Jakobovits.

Among the most prominent of the anthology’s rabbi-authors is Rabbi Charles Sheer, whose 42 page essay, “Torah U-Madda and the Brain Death Debate,” stands at the very center of the presentment on this sensitive and controversial question. His biography warrants your attention as an appropriate introduction to this issue and of his life’s work.

Rabbi Charles Sheer is director of Cultural Competency Education at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. He is also a faculty member at the Bioethics Institute at New York Medical College. Rabbi Sheer holds a B.A. in history from Yeshiva University, an M.A. in Talmudic literature from its Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, and rabbinic ordination from RIETS. He also received a Memorial Fellowship for Advanced Talmudic research from Yeshiva University. Previously, he was director of the Department of Jewish Studies in Jewish Pastoral Care at HealthCare Chaplaincy, an adjunct professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at CCNY, and the longtime and distinguished Jewish chaplain at Columbia University and Barnard College.