Page 181 - 20818_park-c_efi

20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 6 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Cyan
20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 6 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Black
#20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 6 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Yellow
20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 6 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Magenta
#
a stranger. If a person receives his friend’s money in a capacity of a The Shulchan Aruch continues (#73:1-4): “How does the husband 6
watchman or messenger, he is liable. provide his wife with clothing? He is obligated to give her garments
If so, the question arises: Do the physicians in the health clinics that are appropriate for her, that every housewife wears in that coun-
owe their first allegiance to the community of patients that they ser- try. And he is also obligated to provide her with jewelry, and the like.
vice, or to each individual patient on his own? It seems logical that This applies to a poor, Jewish person. If he is rich, he has to give her
since the physician receives payment from each individual patient, he all the aforementioned items according to his wealth.”
has to be loyal to each patient on his own. If so, his primary concern is
providing the individual patient he is servicing with the best advice for In Chelkas Mechokek (ibid, 3) it says that “if it was appropriate for
him. This is for the good of the other patients as well, so that if they him to buy her silk garments, embroidery and golden utensils, we
find themselves in a similar situation, they too, will receive excellent force him to give them to her. Even if her father was a poor man, her
treatment. As we find in Tractate Baba Metzia (27b): It is best for one status rises along with him and he is obligated to give her according
who finds a lost object to return it when its signs are identified so that to his wealth.”
if he loses an object it will be returned when he identifies the signs. If Hospital B has a higher level of medical care, then the husband
Even if we say that the physician is employed by the community has certainly acted contrary to Jewish law in taking her out from Hos-
of patients, we can still say that his first concern must be to treat pital B, which is better in two ways: A) Its quality of care is higher B)
each individual patient in the best possible way. One can also wonder The patient wants to remain there. In such a case, it would be correct
whether a “private consultant” of Rav Huna would be permitted to to call the police to prevent the husband from transferring his wife by
give advice for the benefit of Rav Huna, and not considered an evil force. Below, we rule on whether or not, in this case, the medical staff
person as a result. If this is indeed so, then we can also say that the of Hospital B can demand ten pieces of gold from the husband for
health clinic’s physicians are obligated to look out for the best inter- breaching their mitzvah.
ests of each individual patient. If so, then the physician in our case is
allowed to refer the patient to the emergency room. If Hospital A is renowned for a level of medical care higher than
It seems to me that if the patient is a person of means who can that of Hospital B, but the patient indicated, with her head, that she
allow himself to pay privately for an echocardiogram, the physician would nonetheless prefer to remain in Hospital B, one can assume
should tell him to do so. If he is poor and he cannot afford private that a spirit of folly entered her, and the husband is correct in forcibly
testing, the physician should consult with two other physicians. If transferring her. As explained in Tractate Yoma (83a), if a dangerously
they determine that it is best for the patient, and perhaps also for the ill patient refuses to eat on Yom Kippur, we force-feed him, because
good of the health clinic – since by possibly avoiding a transesoph- we have to assume that he was seized by a moment of folly and that is
ageal echocardiogram and the complications that may develop as a why he refuses to eat. This would apply here as well, especially since
result, we save the health clinic much money- then perhaps it may be her illness resulted from her grief over the recent death of her father,
permissible to refer the patient to the emergency room. and especially since she became paralyzed and cannot speak, but only
The best thing to do is to go to beis din. If the beis din is under the hints with her head. (See Tractate Gittin 59a and 67b.) In this case the
impression that the clinic will not lose out by the patient going to the physicians should assist the husband.
emergency room, then the physician can refer him to the emergency
room. 

158 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Transferring his Wife Against Her Wishes 2 167