The critical issue regarding Halakha's position on organ transplantation lies in establishing the time of death, for harvesting the donor's organs before he is defined as dead constitutes homicide.
Rabbinical authorities have evaluated and analyzed the halachic parameters surrounding the applications of innovative medical and biological technologies, such as blood transfusions, heart transplants, and assisted reproductive technologies.
Medical researchers are pushing for unclaimed eggs in IVF freezers to be donated to clinical research rather than discarded. Proposed clinical trials will try to find ways to eliminate the possibility of children being born with mitochondrial diseases.
A proposal to legalise access to new assisted reproductive techniques that will reduce the risk of parents passing on mitochondrial disease to their children.
