Question:
In an upcoming medical procedure that will be taking place, my doctor said that he might have to put in to me some cartilage from a dead person’s donated cartilage. Is this permitted or is the cartilage osur b’hanah? The doctor said that ideally he would like the option to use such cartilage, but if I tell him that he shouldn’t, then he won’t use it. He would then have less options available to him but it wouldn’t be life threatening. It might result in less than ideal results though. He also said that there is no synthetic cartilage option available.
Answer:
Hello,
I don’t know the specific conditions of your procedure and it’s need, however in general, if the procedure doesn’t involve danger to a person’s life, then we should not take things from a deceased person.
Best wishes and a refuah shleima
