Letters to the Editor

In the article entitled "If the heart is beating, it's murder" (March 27), Yair Ettinger and Yuval Azoulay reported that Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv just published an advertisement in the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox newspaper Yated Ne'eman, ruling that a patient with a dead brain stem is alive as long as his heart continues to beat - contradicting the ruling of the Chief Rabbinate.

First, Rabbi Auerbach has been dead for more than 10 years. Second, this ruling was originally published in Yated Ne'eman in 1991. However, these rabbis reissued, modified and softened their ruling on August 7, 1992, as a result of the famous sheep experiment. This experiment showed that a sheep could be decapitated (which the Mishnah Ohalot 1:6 clearly defines as dead), while its heart could continue beating a long time after the decapitation with the aid of a respirator - as if nothing was wrong. As a result, the rabbis published their new ruling, stating their doubts about the status of a brain-stem dead patient.

Consequently, Rabbi Auerbach, with the help of Dr. Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, published an article in ASSIA - A Journal of Jewish Medical Ethics and Halacha, confirming that he accepted brain-stem death as halakhic death. (The second ruling, the ASSIA article, and video testimony from Dr. Rabbi Steinberg confirming these facts can be found at www.hods.org.)

In an attempt to mislead the public, Yated Ne'eman dishonestly chose not to publish the later modified version of the rabbis' ruling.

Michal Feldstein

Board Member, Halachic Organ Donor Society

As the U.S. lawyers for Jonathan Pollard, we write to correct a fundamental error in Amir Oren's opinion piece entitled "Oligarchy or anarchy" (April 1), which states that Mr. Pollard is "due for release on November 21, 2015."

Under U.S. law in effect at the time of Mr. Pollard's activities, any prisoner sentenced to life in prison is presumptively entitled to parole on the 30th anniversary of the date of incarceration. As a result, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons' computer automatically generates the 30th anniversary date as the "projected" release date, which is posted as such on the U.S. Bureau of Prisons' Web site. On Nov. 21, 2015, Mr. Pollard will be presumptively entitled to parole. However, the U.S. government will still be entitled to oppose parole. Unfortunately, Mr. Pollard is not "due for release" on that date.

Our hope, of course, is that Mr. Pollard is released well before 2015.

Given the unremitting hostility of certain elements in the U.S. intelligence community toward Mr. Pollard, we have thus far refrained from applying for parole because the U.S. Justice Department has denied us access to the sealed court docket materials in Mr. Pollard's case. Without such access, Mr. Pollard's adversaries are able to say anything they wish, true or untrue, knowing that we are unable to rebut their allegations because we have been denied access to the sealed court docket materials.

We are continuing our efforts as security-cleared defense counsel to obtain access to these materials, which would also enable us to authoritatively address executive clemency with President George W. Bush. And we continue to urge the government of Israel to come forward at long last and take the necessary steps to secure Mr. Pollard's release.

Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman

Attorneys for Jonathan Pollard

Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle