[Avodah] Is there any issur here al pi halacha?

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Chaim Manaster asked:
> I would ask whether there is any issur here al pi halacha?

and R' Zev Sero answered:
> On the contrary, this is a huge mitzvah, ...

It is really?

Let's take a closer look.

We're talking about getting people to donate a kidney to someone who needs one. These donors are putting themselves at a certain amount of risk by doing this, both from the surgery itself, and from living out the remainder of their life with only one kidney.

The question of whether a healthy person is required, allowed, or forbidden to put himself at such risk is heavily debated among the poskim. (See any sefer on halacha and refuah for references.) But that's NOT what is happening here.

What IS happening here is that someone going to a person who would not have volunteered for this, and inducing him to "volunteer" by offering him a sum of money which R' Chaim Manaster described as "significant funds to a poor person who desperately needs it".

I will concede that there is a real question of pikuach nefesh here, but I ask others to consider that there is also a real question of Lifnei Iver -- which includes giving someone bad advice.

> Is Congress now higher than Hashem?!

Of course not. But let's make absolutely sure that Hashem does support this venture! People must be protected against unfair pressure. Do I really need to cite chapter and verse on that?

If someone truly volunteers to donate a kidney, and his posek okays it, then yasher koach and kol hakavod. But to offer "significant funds to a poor person who desperately needs it" -- that is a shailah for bigger brains than mine. It's NOT as simple as RZS might think it to be. But if he can cite someone who paskened that way, then please share it.

Akiva Miller

____________________________________________________________
60-Year-Old Mom Looks 27
Mom Reveals Free Wrinkle Trick That Has Angered Doctors!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/4eadfb0eef71311d1438st01vuc