The medical world is evolving at a dizzying pace. New technologies, the cumulative research of countless doctors and research institutions around the world, and unique contemporary social and political pressures have coalesced so that treatments that were impossible only a few years ago have now become industry practice.
But with great power comes great uncertainty. With new knowledge come new quandaries and new challenges.
Addressing some of the most confounding and consequential questions of modern medical ethics, Ira Bedzow, Ph.D., takes a deep dive into the timeless teaching of Torah. In this course, he finds the signposts that direct the medical professional, as well as the patient on the ethical path towards ethical healing.
In addition to being an Orthodox rabbi, Bedzow is associate professor of medicine and director of the Biomedical Ethics & Humanities Program at New York Medical College (NYMC), where he is in charge of the Biomedical Ethics and Humanities Program in the School of Medicine. Bedzow is also the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics at New York Medical College and a senior scholar at the Aspen Center for Social Values.
Produced and streamed by Chabad.org/courses, Healthcare vs. Soul Care: Jewish medical ethics in the modern world runs for three consecutive Wednesdays, starting on Aug. 19.
In the first lesson, Bedzow will lay the groundwork for the course by examining what happens when societies shift from one belief to another and then take a hard look at patient autonomy, pointing out where Judaism and modern medical ethics diverge.
The following week, he will examine the sanctity of the body through the lens of a Talmudic-era conversation between a Roman and a Jew, a contemporary teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, as well as the medical secular literature on the matter.
In the third lesson, he will cover the gray area where medicine converges with healthy practices and holistic remedies. In it, students will be exposed to the ethics of alternative medicine, charms, shamans, riding in an ambulance on Shabbat, and, in a bit of a twist, the comedian Andy Kaufman.
“During the course of our lives, it is almost inevitable that we will need to make ethically informed medical decisions,” says Yaakov Kaplan, who produced the course. “Dr. Bedzow provides some much-needed Torah perspective and clarity, which will equip us to ask the right questions and learn how and when to make those decisions.”
The course is free (a donation is suggested, but not required) to those who register online. As all Chabad.org courses, handouts, quizzes and other study materials will be provided.
Visit Healthcare vs. Soul Care: Jewish medical ethics in the modern world to sign up today.
Start a Discussion