Human Rights and Religious Duties: Informed Consent to Medical Treatment under Jewish Law

Abstract

The tension between religion and human rights is usually expressed in relation to issues of freedom of religion or freedom from religion. In Israeli law this is just one aspect of the relations between these two realms, since Judaism is a religion that governs all facets of life. This means that Jewish law is relevant to and has a say in every issue that involves human rights. Doctor-patient relationships and decision-making about medical treatment constitute an entire realm of their own. Such relations are fraught with moral and religious issues, and this might be expected to raise contradictions between Jewish and state law. This paper examines the issue of informed consent to medical treatment, in which it has been argued that there is a collision between Jewish law and the secular notion of human rights.1