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272: IS IT PERMITTED TO
REFUSE TO TREAT A
PATIENT AT A CLI NIC
BECAUSE SHE IS A
SINNER?

ɳ Question

Is a specialist in gynecological ultra-sound allowed to refuse to accept
a patient for treatment or for follow-up in a private clinic, because
the patient is a sinner, involved in violating the most stringent Torah
prohibitions?

Dr. Shraga Wechsler, Gynecologist,
Tel Aviv

ɳ Response1

If the patient’s life is in danger there is apparently an obligation to heal
her as it says in Yehoshua (7,10-11), “Hashem said to Yehoshua…‘Yis-

1. Our discussion focuses principally on the obligation to treat a sinner however,
if the physician will sustain a loss as a result of treating the woman e.g. her
presence in the waiting room will cause other patients to leave, the physician is
entitled to refuse to see her, in non life threatening situations. It is a mitzvah to
make the effort to make a special time to treat her, as explained earlier, in siman
24.