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Court is based on the law of ransom (kofer). As the Rambam writes   the fact that he is not licensed by the authorities in the country
 (Hilchos Chovel Umazik 1:3): “And it says in the Torah: “And do not   where he is practicing.
 take ransom for the soul of the murderer.” Only for a murderer there   4. A homeopathic physician who treats in a manner not accepted
 is no ransom, but for the loss of a limb or organ or for wounds there   by conventional medicine is obligated to consult with other
 is ransom.” Beforehand, the Rambam says: “When the Torah says:   physicians before he administers the homeopathic therapy. If he
 ’just as one inflicts a blemish on a person, so shall it be done to him,’   does not consult with colleagues and the therapy damages the
 this does not imply that one literally injures the person who injured   patient, a human court can obligate him to pay.
 another in the same way he did, but rather that he deserves to lose a
 limb or an organ or to be injured as he injured another. That is why
 he pays ransom money for the damage he did.” Likewise, a physician
 who injures a person’s body deserves to lose a limb or an organ, and
 is therefore obligated to pay, as a ransom for his own limb or organ.
 In this way, the principle of hefker beis din hefker does not apply to
 exempt him, because the beis din cannot declare a limb or organ to be
 ownerless.

 If the physician is treating a patient who would die if not for the
 treatment, and then he inadvertently injures him, he is exempt even in
 the Heavenly Court since he saved the patient from certain death. In
 addition, the physician was forced into the situation by his obligation
 to save a life, and if a person errs while doing a mitzvah, he is exempt
 from bringing an animal offering in the Temple. As it says in maseches
 Shabbos 137a: If a mohel had two babies to circumcise, one on Friday
 and one on Shabbos, and he erred and circumcised the Friday baby on
 Shabbos, Rabbi Yehoshua exempts him. The Rambam adds (Hilchos
 Shegagos 2:8) as follows: And so, too, if a mohel had two babies to
 circumcise, one on Shabbos and the other on Friday or Sunday, and he
 forgot and circumcised both of them on Shabbos, he is exempt [from
 liability] and from a chatas because he was allowed to circumcise one
 on Shabbos… being that his time is short and he could not have been
 careful. So, too, in our case, the physician’s time is short and confusion
 is to be expected when saving a life. This is similar to the Gemara in
 Bava Kamma 32a where two people who were running on Friday in-
 jured each other, and the damager is exempt because he was allowed
 to run.
 My brother-in-law, the Gaon Rav Chaim Kanievsky, argues that




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