Premier Levi Eshkol proposed today, after a hectic round of talks with his coalition partners that a special committee to deal with the spreading crisis provoked by the autopsies in Israeli hospitals be established.
The Premier met for nearly three hours with two Ministers of the National Religious Party, Interior Minister Moshe Shapiro and Welfare Minister Joseph Burg. The meeting also was attended by Justice Minister Yaacov Shapiro and Health Minister Israel Barzilai. It was reported that the NRP leaders asked the Premier for repeal of far-reaching amendments to the Anatomy and Pathology Law which regulates hospital procedures on postmortems.
The Premier also met with representatives of the ultra-Orthodox Poalei Agudat Israel whose leaders yesterday informed Government sources that, if no satisfactory agreement was reached on the issue, they would quit the Government and ask for a special Knesset session on the problem.
NRP leaders conferred throughout last night with the Health and Justice Ministers and senior officials of those Ministries. After the various meetings, the Premier offered his proposal. This calls for special committees of three physicians, who would supervise autopsies in Israeli hospitals Such a committee, which would include one Orthodox doctor, would be named in each hospital where pathology investigations are likely to be carried out.
The NRP leaders appeared very reluctant to accept the Eshkol proposal, which would include an appeals committee with authority to overrule local hospital bodies. If agreement is not reached, NRP leaders indicated, the NRP might back the Poalei Agudat Israel and Agudat Israel in asking for a special Knesset session. It appeared unlikely however that with only 17 Knesset members, the three Orthodox parties would be able to obtain the required 30 signatures for such a special session call.
The immediate cause of the latest governmental difficulties on the issue was a transplant carried out last Sunday in Tel Hashomer Hospital when the corneas were removed from the eyes of the late Rabbi Moshe Gottesman, formerly of New York, after he died in the hospital last weekend. The corneas were removed for transplant to a patient who had been rushed to the hospital with rapidly deteriorating eye vision.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
