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33 A PHYSICIAN WHO PERFORMED AN UNNECESSARY The best time to attempt this type of surgery is between 14 and
CAESAREAN SECTION ..............................................................71 17 years of age, when the tissues around the spermatic duct and the
testicle have developed and it is easier to repair the cut. On the other
34 A PHYSICIAN REMOVED THE LEFT KIDNEY hand, the amount of sperm cell production in the testicle is not yet
INSTEAD OF THE RIGHT AND FOUND THAT IT WAS at its maximum. Therefore the chance of antibodies developing is still
CANCEROUS .................................................................................77 small.
1. Hit a friend and saved his life ..............................................78
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Dr. A. Tomer, expert neonatologist
2. Hitting a mute person with a car and thereby curing her .80 Professor A. Humnai, Head of Department of
3. A person broke a water tank and extinguished a house Male Fertility
fire ............................................................................................81 HaKiryah Hospital, Tel Aviv
4. A Caesarean section that saved the mother’s life but injured
her unnecessarily ................................................................... 82 Based on this medical opinion, we can attempt to answer the ques-
5. A teacher spoke evil of her student, but as a result, the tion:
student got engaged. .............................................................84 Basic halachah does not obligate the physician to expose the story

Payment to a physician who performed surgery negligently but and reveal it to the parents. It says in the Tosefta (Bava Kamma 6:6):
saved a life ....................................................................................88 “An expert physician who heals with the permission of a beis din and
did damage is exempt in a human court but will be held account-
Payment to a physician who began using a new type of treat-
ment and wanted to use this new therapy in order to become able in a Heavenly Court.” So, too, the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah
famous ..........................................................................................89 #336:1) rules that if “he healed with permission from a beis din and
inadvertently caused damage, he is exempt in a human court but held
When suing for compensation will ruin the doctor’s reputa- accountable in the Heavenly Court.” Although a person is always held
tion ...............................................................................................89
responsible for his deeds, whether [they were done] unintentionally
Loss of security money through gambling – should the gam- or on purpose (Bava Kamma 26a), it is a Rabbinic decree “for the
bler be put in jail? ........................................................................90 good of the world” to exempt the physician who caused damage un-
intentionally, lest the physician withhold his skills and refuse to heal.
35 A PHYSICIAN LEFT AN INSTRUMENT IN THE In view of the Shevet Halevi’s opinion cited in the previous question
PATIENT’S ABDOMEN ...............................................................93 (see Chapter 27 regarding a dentist who mistakenly drilled a healthy
Claim for disability caused by heart surgery performed while tooth), one needs to rule regarding a physician who cut and severed
using another patient’s catheterization disc ...........................100 the spermatic cord. Is he viewed as one who cut in the wrong place,
one who caused damage to an organ other than the one he was meant
36 A PHYSICIAN FAILING TO INFORM A PATIENT OF to work on? Logic says that since the spermatic cords in a child are
POSSIBLE RISKS ........................................................................103 very thin and the surgeon works very close to them while repairing a
Treating a patient without his express consent .....................114 hernia, it is difficult to avoid injuring them and he is therefore exempt
A person consulted a nurse after injecting his mother with in a human court, but held accountable in a Heavenly Court.
insulin and seeing that she did not feel well ............................123 It seems to me that, in our case, the physician would be exempt

2 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Physician cut spermatic duct 2 19

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