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Hadassah and Terrorists

The doctors, nurses and staff at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem have done a fantastic job of responding to the desperate medical situation of patients critically injured in terrorist attacks.

This week's Time has a feature about Hadassah. One of those quoted is Dr. Avi Rivkind, chief of E.R. at Hadassah. Dr. Rivkind proudly recalls saving the life of Samer Qawasbeh, one of the Palestinian terrorists who invaded Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity last year. In the midst of a gun battle, Qawasbeh was shot in the stomach. By the time he reached Hadassah, "he was pretty much dead," said Rivkind, who treated him. After a series of operations paid for by Hadassah, the terrorist's life was saved. Commenting on Qawsabeh, Rivkind says "The guy's a terrorist, one hundred percent, but I don't care." Rivkind also said that Hadassah would arrange to get a special permit for the terrorist to enter Jerusalem, for further treatment.

Rivkind is wrong. While from a medical perspective it is appropriate to treat every patient, there are moral standards outside medicine which all citizens, including doctors, must recognize. Rivkind fails to understand that. Saving the life of a terrorist who is likely to try to kill again and making special arrangements for him to get a permit into Jerusalem is not something Rivkind should be proud of. At best - if required by law - it is a necessary evil. At worst it is acting as an accessory to the potential murder of innocents, such as one of Rivkind's collegues, Dr. Shmuel Gillis, a senior hemotologist at Hadassah who was shot dead by Fatah terrorists as he headed home following a shift at Hadassah.
posted on 6/16/2003