[Avodah] psak halacha

[Eli Turkel]

<<Couldn't the posek in question have told the sho'el to ask someone
else who would pasken that the youth was dead, or would this have been
a travesty of halacha?>>

I would assume it depends on hogh strongly the posek feels about the
issue and the circumstances.  There is a rabbi in our town who when
asked questions about pregnant/nursing women fasting refuses to answer
and sends them to R. Nebenzahl who is very mekil on the issue.
Basically he is saying that R. Nebenzahl is a recognized posek. The
local rabbi is not willing to accept the kulah but recognizes it as an
alternative.
R. Zilberstein of Bnei Brak has spoken on the issue and is machmir. He
feels that women through the ages have fasted and it is
only recently that questions like a nursing mother losing her milk
have arisen while the facts have not changed.

To take an extreme case from recent stories if someone asked R.
Elyashiv a question that relied on heter mechira for some important
issue he would definitely prohibit it and not send the questioner to ROY.

The question of the definition of halachic death is very emotional and
those that are machmir are sure the other side
is nonsense and would never send a questioner to someone who is mekil

-- 
Eli Turkel