Pigs Are Kosher for Transplants
Pigs may donate their hearts for human transplants under Jewish law despite a ban against eating pork, an Israeli hospital rabbi said Thursday.
Rabbi Yaacov Rakovsky of Hadassah University Hospital gave his blessing to predictions by a visiting British heart specialist that pig hearts would help overcome a shortage of human hearts for transplants.
“They asked me in principle, and I said there is no prohibition. It’s forbidden to eat pork, that’s all. It’s permitted to use its organs to save human lives,” the rabbi said.
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