goes so far as to insist that it is wrong to keep a patient on life support systems once natural signs of life (breath and pulse) have ceased to function spontaneously, even if the purpose be to preserve organs for transplant to another. R. Moshe Hershler insists that a respirator cannot be removed from one patient in order to be given to another, even "more needy;" if one respirator is available and two patients need it, the doctors should allot it to the patient who has the best chance of recovery.
So fine is the line demarking "interference with the Divine will" that R. Eliezer Yehudah Waldenburg advises the use of respirators that turn off automatically every twelve or twenty-four hours.
Indeed, there is yet another fine distinction; the patient cannot be left without "natural" support, such as nourishment, that is needed by everyone, as opposed to medication or treatment; indeed, Jacobovits would include blood and oxygen within the support to be provided so long as life persists.
In contrast to these restrictive teachings, it wa
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