By Jonathan Benedek/TPS
Earlier this week, the Israel Medical Association’s (IMA’s) ethics committee announced that patients should be prioritized for medical treatment according to medical considerations alone. Since such a standard could theoretically include a scenario in which a terrorist could be treated before a victim, many in Israel have spoken out against the IMA’s position.
“A terrorist is not someone who I would prioritize in any medical field,” said ZAKA volunteer Yossi Fraenkel to Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “My priority would be the victims.”
The IMA announced the change after “Physicians for Human Rights” accused Israel of acting in contrary to international medical ethics and human rights. However, Fraenkel argued that the most moral standard is not the one currently being pushed by the IMA and Physicians for Human Rights.
“We as medical volunteers look at the morality of the situation, and the moral standing in society is to help the injured and not the injurer,” continued Fraenkel.
“Once we’ve finished helping the victims, then we can go and deal with the terrorists, but our priority should be the victims.”
Fraenkel added that the IMA’s position contradicts the very principles expressed by his organization’s name, specifically the principle to serve victims.
“Our acronym ZAKA stands for our name ‘Zihuy Korbanot Ason,’ which means ‘Disaster Victim Identification,’” Fraenkel explained to TPS. “By definition, we assist the victims first before assisting the terrorist.”
Earlier, ZAKA Chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav made similar remarks. “In spite of the ethical code that says one should treat the most severely injured first, one should know that even morality has its boundaries,” said Meshi-Zahav. “If we do not make this distinction, we lose our direction.”
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of the religion and ethics department at the Jerusalem Center of Ethics, made a similar moral argument opposing the IMA’s announcement this week.
“The problem with the position of the IMA is that they said there should only be one factor that the doctor or medical crew should use when they answer an emergency call, and that factor is the medical situation of all the injured people in an emergency,” noted Rabbi Cherlow to TPS.
“I think that position is wrong ethically because first of all, medical staff cannot be expected to only use one factor in determining which patient to treat first,” argued Rabbi Cherlow. “But more specifically, the IMA’s standard makes no distinction between the attacker and the innocent people, or the terrorist and the victims.”
Like ZAKA, Rabbi Cherlow believes that victims should be treated before terrorists. “If it’s clear who the terrorist and victim are and there’s only one doctor, the doctor should first take care of the victim and not the terrorist even if the terrorists’ medical situation is worse,” said Rabbi Cherlow to TPS.
Notably, both ZAKA volunteer Fraenkel and Rabbi Cherlow believe the standard should be the same regardless of ethnic identity. “It doesn’t make a difference who the terrorist is,” stressed Fraenkel to TPS. “If the terrorist is Jewish or Muslim or whatever background they are, our priority is to help the victims.”
“There is no difference between a Jewish and Arab attacker,” Rabbi Cherlow agreed.
Rabbi Cherlow further added that it would be unjust to treat the terrorist before the victim.
“Justice is something inherent in Judaism,” said Rabbi Cherlow to TPS. “There is no doubt that according to Jewish ethical principles, we should abide by the verse in Deuteronomy that says ‘justice, justice shall you pursue.’’’
‘’That means justice must be part of our profession and not a byproduct.’’