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and the Holy One, blessed be He, waits until he marries a woman and
sires first one son and then a second son. Then the Holy One, blessed
be He, takes the child from him. The result is that he has paid his
debt; Hashem has taken back what is rightfully His, and he remains
among the living. As it says (Yirmiyahu 15:19): “If you return and I
bring you back, you shall stand before Me.”
When Hashem loves a person and that person is guilty and de-
serves to die, He gives him a son who deserves to die or suffer severely
because of a transgression of his own so that the father’s sins will be
atoned for by these sufferings and the son will achieve rectification.
It says in the Siddur Eitz Yosef (Otzar Hatefilos, p. 99, commentary
on Tehillim 33) that this is meaning of the passuk “He loves tzedakah
(chessed) and justice, the lovingkindness of Hashem fills the earth.”
Hashem first showers man with good things and blessings due to His
measures of rachamim and chessed, but in hidden ways, because of the
measure of din. When the din prevails He sends the accuser to collect
his debts. In other words, he begins with tzedakah – chessed - and then
judgment comes.
In light of all the above, we can understand why a son cannot sue
his parents for bringing him into the world. It is a benefit for him and
he was destined to come down into the world, and thus merit life in
the World to Come. His life on this earth, with all its accompanying
anguish and difficulty – measured to perfection by the all-merciful
Creator – serves to rectify what he has done wrong.
The parents can also more easily bear the suffering with the rec-
ognition that this child is good for the entire family and their reward
is great for bringing a child into the world in order to achieve his
rectification.
The Hagahos Semak wonders why we desecrate the Shabbos for a
child whose head is crushed and will certainly die. The principle is well
known: “Desecrate one Shabbos so that if he lives he will be able to ob-
serve many Shabboses” (Shabbos 151b). Where are the many Shabboses
of this boy whose head is crushed? Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem responds
(in the commentary of Maharshal on the Semag (Hilchos Shabbos, p.
42) that it is well known that every family and city is judged by the
38 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein
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because he did not look into the matter enough - and thus we can 2
consider him to be negligent, as explained by the Ramban (there) - he
is still exempt from payment. The obligation to pay applies only in
the case of “one who shows coins to a moneychanger,” meaning he
wants advice from an expert on the value of his coins. On the other
hand, if someone questioned an ordinary man on the street and he
gave him an incorrect evaluation, he is probably exempt from paying
because the questioner knew that his advice was based on his limited
knowledge of the subject.
The same would apply in our case. If the couple was aware that the
genetic advice was not in the area of the physician’s expertise, he is
exempt from payment. The couple brought the damage upon them-
selves by seeking advice from an inappropriate person and relying on
him.

We have referred to the fact that the physician is not obligated to
pay for his erroneous advice. Nonetheless, the physician has clearly
violated the Torah law: “You shall not put a stumbling block in front
of the blind” (Sefer Hachinuch, Mitzvah #232, Vayikra 19:14). We are
commanded not to trip up a blind person, which includes not giving
bad advice. Instead, we should lead the blind on the path that seems
proper and right to us. As it says, “Do not put a stumbling block
[wrong information] before the blind.” Do not give advice which is
not correct and not appropriate.
It seems to me that if the advising physician did not look into the
matter sufficiently, he transgressed “Do not put a stumbling block
before the blind,” especially when the questioner paid for the advice.
One needs to rule if the physician can achieve forgiveness on high
for his sin by compensating with money (although he is halachically
exempt from payment).
The son of the author of Alfei Menashe asked the Gaon, Rav
Yitzchak of Volozhin, whether or not he should sail on the ocean,
since he dreamed that he would drown. The Gaon answered him:
“Dreams are not to be considered seriously, one way or another.” On
the basis of this advice, he set out to sea and he drowned. When the
Erroneous genetic advice 2 47