2:25 PM
Gil Student
From a 1989 article by R. Ahron Soloveichik titled "Death According to the Halacha":
A person who becomes devoid of respiration but who still has cardiac activity is considered semi-alive and semi-dead. Consequently, if someone will kill him, he will be considered a murderer. Hence, it is absolutely forbidden (yehareg ve-al ya'avor) to cut out the heart of that person even though the removal of the heart of the donor is indispensable to the preservation of the life of the donee...
It is obvious that the so-called "Harvard Criteria" do not conform to halacha...
It is incumbent upon all those who have ethical sensitivity to protest against those who are trying to implement the Harvard criteria through a heart or liver transplant because of brotherhood and mercy. I have the greatest respect and reverence for the few distinguished and revered Rabbis here and in Israel who expressed themselves in favor of the Harvard criteria. However, as the Ba'al Ha'Maor in his introduction says... "I love Plato but the truth I love above everything else."
