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| Welcome to the YU Medical Ethics Society, your resource for medical ethics at YU | |||
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Past Conference Conference Schedule 12:00 - 1:00
Conference Registration Light Lunch will be served. 1:00 - 2:15
Opening Plenary Living Organ Donation: At What Risk? Introductions: Adinah Raskas Moderator: Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman Special Adress: Rabbi Mordechai Willig, Dr. Stuart Greenstein 2:15 - 2:30
Break Refreshments will be served 2:30 - 3:15
Cardiac Death in Jewish Law Introductions and Moderator: Rabbi Kenneth Brander Special Adress: Rabbi Hershel Schachter 3:15 - 3:30
Break Refreshments will be served. 3:30 - 4:15
Breakout Sessions Track 1: End of life Issues and Advanced Directives Presenter: Dr. Fred Rosner Track 2: Organ Trafficking Presenter: Rabbi Avraham Steinberg (Tentative) Track 3: Psycho Social Issues Presenter: Dr. Hindi Mermelstein Track 4: Let's Face it: Face and Non-vital Organ Transplants in Halakha Presenter: Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman 4:15 - 4:30
Break Refreshments will be served. 4:30 - 6:15
Brain Death in Jewish Law Introductions and Moderator: Dr. Fred Rosner Special Address: Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler
Keynote Address and Closing Remarks Keynote Address: Rabbi Dr. Abraham Steinberg Wrap up and Final words: Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman 6:15
Conference Adjourned ACCREDITATION Albert Einstein College of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Albert Einstein College of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 4.5 PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Conference Speakers
Dr Stuart M Greenstein Dr Stuart M Greenstein is Professor of Surgery and an Attending surgeon at Montefiore Medical Center- Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he has been a member of the transplant team for the past 18 years. He is one of only a few Orthodox Transplant Surgeons in the United States. He is graduate of Yeshiva University High School, attended Brooklyn College and received a BS summa cum laude. He received his medical education at Harvard Medical school and subsequently did his surgical training at NYU medical center and UMDNJ. He did surgical fellowships in Vascular Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a transplant fellowship at Downstate Medical Center. He has a special interest in Jewish Biomedical ethics and has been a standing member of the Bioethics committee at Montefiore Medical Center for the past 16 years. He has been actively involved in living donor transplants especially in the orthodox community and has performed kidney transplants in various Chassidic groups here in NY and from Israel. He is called upon by many Orthodox referral groups and rabbis to discuss transplant issues because of his unique professional training, his respect for Yirath Shamayim (fear of Heaven), and his understanding of Halacha (Jewish law) in the area of organ transplantation. Dr. Hindi Mermelstein Dr. Hindi Mermelstein received her B.S. from Turo[Y1] College, and then went on to complete her M.D. from S.U.N.Y. Health Science Center in Syracuse New York. She did a one year residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center, and then completed a three year residency program in Psychiatry from New York University and Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. Dr. Mermelstein then[Y2] completed a fellowship in Psychiatry Service Department of Neurology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Today[Y3] , Dr. Mermelstein is the Senior Assistant Attending Psychiatrist at North Shore LIJ Health System in Manhasset New York. Dr. Mermelstein is also the Director of Faculty Practice Department of Psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Manhasset New York, and the Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Mermelstein is also a noted psycho-oncologist who has worked with many people at their end stages of life. Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman
Dr. Fred Rosner Dr. Fred Rosner is the Director of the Department of Medicine at the Queens Hospital Center, Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Visiting Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of Jewish medical ethics. A prolific writer, he has published 36 books and over 800 articles, reviewed manuscripts for 16 professional medical journals, and has authored six acclaimed books on Jewish medical ethics, including Modern Medicine and Jewish Ethics, and Medicine and Jewish Law I and II. Dr. Rosner has been an adamant supporter of Jewish organ donation. Along with Rabbi Moshe D. Tendler, Dr. Rosner helped formulate the halachik position that renders a person with total cessation of all brain function to be considered “physiologically decapitated” according to Jewish law. Like Rabbi Tendler, Dr. Rosner asserts that despite possible continuation of function of certain individual organs such as the heart, the person is considered dead, and organs may be harvested for transplantation. Rabbi Herschel Schachter
Regarding the issue of organ donation, Rabbi Schachter has formed a position that stands as the middle ground between those opposing a halachik definition of death determined by cessation of all brain activity, and those in favor of such a definition. Through a careful analysis of various halachik perspectives on the issue, Rabbi Schachter has deemed the question to remain a safek, or a matter of doubt. While the theoretical arguments render both sides to be equally valid, the practical application of Rabbi Schachter's opinion translates to a mandate to act stringently in all cases of doubt, rendering a brain death based definition inapplicable to practical halacha. Dr. Avraham Steinberg Dr. Avraham Steinberg is an international expert on Jewish biomedical ethics. A Pediatric Neurologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Director of both the Center for Medical Ethics at Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem , and the Medical Ethics Unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Dr. Steinberg is the author of numerous books and articles on Jewish medical ethics, general medical ethics, the history of medicine, and pediatric neurology. He has received a variety of prizes and awards for his work including the 1999 Israel Prize Laureate which he received for his completion of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics. Dr. Steinberg received his M.D. from Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School. He completed his residency in Pediatrics from Shaare Zedek, and in Neurology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Hospital Medical Center in Bronx, New York. He then became a fellow in Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Steinberg served as a Medical Officer in the Israeli Air Force, and has acted as an attending physician in Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem. Dr. Steinberg was former Director of the F. Schlesinger Institute in Jerusalem. Rabbi Dr. Moshe D. Tendler
Rabbi Tendler has been one of the most vocal and adamant supporters of Jewish organ donation. The son-in-law of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Tendler has interpreted his father-in-law’s responsa to support the theory that complete and irreversible cessation of function of the entire brain renders a person “physiologically decapitated”, and is considered legally dead according to Jewish law. Thus, Rabbi Tendler has been a strong advocate for brain death criteria to be adopted as an acceptable definition of death under Jewish law. According to this opinion, removal of organs for donation, including vital organs such as a heart that may still be beating, is permissible upon pronunciation of brain death. Furthermore, Rabbi Tender asserts that once organ donation has been deemed permissible under the given conditions, it is indeed mandatory, falling under the rubric of the legal obligation of Jews to preserve the lives of others. Rabbi Mordechai Willig Rabbi Mordechai Willig is a Rosh Yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and has been the Rosh Yeshiva at the Mazer School of Talmudic Studies since 1973. He is also the Rabbi Dr. Sol Roth Professor of Talmud and Contemporary Halachah at Yeshiva University's RIETS program. Rabbi Willig has been the Rabbi of Young Israel of Riverdale in Bronx, New York since 1974. He is also a member of the Beth Din of America. Rabbi Willig received his B.A in Mathematics from Yeshiva College in 1968. He then completed his M.S. in Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School. That same year he received semicha. Rabbi Willig has written many articles in Torah journals as well as a sefer entitiled Am Mordechai. |
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Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Associate Professor of Philosophy and History of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) of Yeshiva University, where he teaches Jewish medical ethics. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and writes and lectures widely in the field of Jewish medical ethics. Rabbi Reichmann has supported the adoption of “brain-death” criteria as an acceptable halachik definition of death, thus allowing for organ harvesting before certain vital organs, such as the heart, sustain irreversible damage.
Rabbi Herschel Schachter a noted Talmudic scholar and posek, has been Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University for over 40 years. Since 1971, Rabbi Schachter has been Rosh Kollel in RIETS' Marcos and Adina Katz Kollel (Institute for Advanced Research in Rabbinics) and also holds the institution's Nathan and Vivian Fink Distinguished Professorial Chair in Talmud. In addition to his teaching duties, Rabbi Schachter lectures, writes, and serves as a world renowned decisor of Jewish Law. A prolific author, he has written more than 100 articles in Hebrew and English for various scholarly publications. At age 22, Rabbi Schachter was appointed assistant to the renowned Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt"l. Rabbi Schachter earned his B.A. from Yeshiva College, an M.A. in Hebrew Literature from the Bernard Revel Graduate School in 1967, and was ordained that same year.
Rabbi Dr. Moshe D. Tendler is the Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Professor of Jewish Medical Ethics, and is a Professor of Biology, as well as Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Rabbi Tendler is a leading expert on medical ethics as it pertains to Jewish law. He is the author of Practical Medical Halakhah, a textbook of Jewish responsa to medical issues, and Pardes Rimonim, a book about the laws of ritual family purity. In addition, Rabbi Tendler is the Rabbi of the Community Synagogue in Monsey, NY, and is the chairman of the Bioethical Commission, RCA, and of the Medical Ethics Task Force, UJA-Federation of Greater New York.