Israel’s First Liver Transplant Done; Rabbis Concerned
Israel carried out its first liver transplant Wednesday despite persistent concerns of the country’s chief rabbis that the surgery violates Jewish law.
Health Minister Shoshana Arbeli-Almozlino said she gave doctors permission to proceed with the operation to save the life of Mira Schichmanter, a 40-year-old mother of two.
Doctors at Rambam Hospital in Haifa said her condition was critical but stable after 18 hours of surgery.
Israel’s religious leaders consider liver transplants a violation of traditional Jewish law, because transplant procedures require that the donor still be breathing when the organ is removed from the body. Jewish law generally defines death as an absence of heartbeat and breathing; therefore the donor is technically still alive.
Dr. Daniel Shuval of Hadassah Hospital’s liver unit said, “According to medical laws and rules accepted all over the world and in Israel, we consider brain death as death.
“We cannot transplant a liver from a patient whose heart has ceased to beat.”
State radio said the donor was a 19-year-old woman soldier who died after being injured in a car crash.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
