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Fellow Weekly - Issue 118
WHAT'S THE LAW ™
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Encouraging intelligent and entertaining debate at your Shabbat table.
Fellow Weekly raises issues of business law and ethics through lively emails by featuring your real-life scenarios answered by our leading authorities and professionals.
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Case # 224 Acupuncture: East vs. West
Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body.
Its general theory is based on the premise that bodily functions are regulated by the flow of an energy-like entity called qi.
Acupuncture aims to correct imbalances in the flow of qi by stimulation of anatomical locations on or under the skin called acupuncture points, most of which are connected by channels known as meridians.
The amount of pain, when administered properly, very often depends on the needle sizes which apparently vary between China and Japan.
Whether acupuncture is an effective cure is subject to continuous international debate. Proponents of acupuncture believe that it promotes general health, relieves pain, treats infertility, treats and prevents disease.
Critics of acupuncture claim that scientific research has not found it effective for anything but the relief of some types of pain and nausea.
Some maintain that acupuncture is merely psychological and there is no difference whether the practitioner punctures the designated acupuncture points or random points.
And yet others claim that it acupuncture is mystical, noting that Chinese medicine forbade dissection, and as a result the understanding of how the body functioned was based on a system that related to the world around the body rather than its internal structures.
The 365 "divisions" of the body were based on the number of days in a year, and the 12 meridians proposed in the TCM system are thought to be based on the 12 major rivers that run through China.
As Acupuncture has been practiced for generations in the East, yet its general effectiveness has yet to have been scientifically proven, may one elect to undergo acupuncture in order to alleviate acute pain or to as a preventative measure to avert disease?
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Case # 222 The Child the Caregiver I
As Mr. Friedman continued to get on in life, it began to become evident that long term care was in order. Debbie and Dani Berinstein, his daughter and son-in-law agreed to rise to the challenge take him in to their home.
Mr. Friedman needed someone to administer a daily sugar test. Money was tight, whereby paying for nurses round the clock would have cost the Berinsteins to forgo their seasonal vacations.
May Debbie take her father's blood each day or should she hire a nurse and have to forgo her vacations?
Case # 223 The Child the Caregiver II
Every second could mean saving yet another life from beneath the debris of the rocketed building in Ashkelon.
Should Dudi take the time to slowly remove the concrete slabs and lift his father out without wounding him or should he quickly pull his father out, whereby gashing his arm along the concrete slabs, but have more time to move on to an area where more lives might be entrapped?
What's the Law?
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The Answer
We present you here with a concise ruling. For a more intricate elucidation, please see the detailed explanation below.
Debbie need not hire a nurse. She may administer the shots herself.
Dudi should lift his father from the debris and risk gashing his father's arm.
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Detailed Explanation
The Chid The Caregiver invokes the following three laws.
1. A child is required to physically bother him/herself to tend to his/her parent's needs. However, if the parent has sufficient resources, the child is not required to spend his/her personal funds to care for the parent. Otherwise, the child should spend his/her own money commensurate with his/her means [Yoreh De'ah 240: 4, 5].
2. It is forbidden for a child to hit or bruise his/her parent. A child who bruises a parent (with witnesses and forewarning) could be sentenced to death by a court of 23 Supreme Justices [Yoreh De'ah 241: 2].
3. A child may administer invasive medical treatment to a parent (and if necessary should) [Maseches Sanhedrin 84b; Rambam, Ran].
However, if there is an alternative accessible approach or another available competent party, the child should opt for the alternative choice or defer its administration to the third party, lest the child inadvertently err and exact an unwarranted blemish on the parent [Yoreh De'ah 241: 3].
Note: "Another available competent party" means "available within its normal approach without excess inconvenience [Maseches Pesachim 25b Tosafos d.v. lo efshar, see also Gesher HaChaim II: 1:1]
Application
I. Debbie is not required to spend her own money to care for her father. Hiring a nurse would definitely fall into the category of inconvenience. Hence, an alternative option is not deemed available. Consequently, Debbie should administer the daily shots.
II. Even avoiding the Halachic significance of potentially saving other lives; slowly removing the slabs of concrete is not the normal way of saving his father under these circumstances and would be considered engaging in excess inconvenience.
Dudi would be required to lift his father from beneath the debris; risking gashing his arm in order to move on to another area where other lives might be entrapped instead of slowly removing the slabs of concrete to lift his father out unscathed.
[Dayan Chaim Kohn]
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Note:
Although we aim to present the correct ruling, varying details are always important and decisively influence every individual case. Our readers are thus encouraged to present their personal cases to a competent authority and not solely rely on the information provided.
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