Jewish Ethics and Beneficence

Abstract

Medical care and illness have always provided opportunities for the exercise of altruism and beneficence, but in our own day these opportunities have in some ways expanded. The growing field of medical experimentation and the possibility of organ transplantation and donation, for example, have provided new occasions for acts of selfless devotion to the welfare of other persons. Against the background of these very contemporary issues, it is useful to ask what the attitude of a traditional faith like Judaism is to acts of beneficence. Does traditional Jewish teaching, as elaborated in major legal texts and rabbinic writings, permit persons to subordinate their interests in order to promote the welfare of others? Does Judaism ever require an individual actively to risk his interests or his life on others’ behalf? And what are the implications of answers to these questions for one’s participation in experimentation, organ donation, or other forms of medical beneficence? Because of the richness of the Jewish tradition of moral reflection, the answers to these questions are of interest not only to those who identify themselves as Jews but also to those who seek to come to terms with the difficult new choices imposed by modern medical care.