Holding On or Letting Go...
What Judaism Says About “Pulling the Plug”
An Interactive Seminar & Workshop--
End-of-Life Medical Decision-Making

Terminally ill patients and their families make heart-wrenching decisions when confronting end-of-life issues -
How do healthcare professionals help patients and families resolve these issues in the context of Jewish tradition?

• If life is sacred, must we use extraordinary measures to preserve it - even when a patient is terminally ill and has no quality of life?
• Does Halacha recognize advance directives, healthcare proxies and the rights of patients to refuse feeding tubes, ventilators and dialysis? When is hospice appropriate?
  

Presenter: Rabbi Zev Schostak
Rabbi Zev Schostak is the Director of Pastoral Care at the Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack, Long Island. He is the founder and Chair of Gurwin’s Ethics Panel, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he lectures on bioethics in the medical school. Rabbi Schostak speaks and writes extensively on end-of-life bioethics and the issues of aging in halacha. His writings have appeared in professional journals and national publications in the United States, England and Israel.

Bookings are available for synagogues and organizations courtesy of the National Council of Young Israel. For more information, contact Rabbi Binyamin Hammer, Director of Rabbinic Services, at (212) 929-1525, ext. 104, or email bhammer@youngisrael.org.

Accreditation *
Health care professionals including physicians, PAs, nurse practitioners, nurses, psychologists, social workers, chaplains and related health care professionals are eligible to receive CME 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits or Certicates of Attendance through the School of Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Sponsored by The National Council of Young Israel