Knesset Rejects Series of Motions by Orthodox to Debate Issue of Autopsies

An uproar broke out in the Knesset yesterday when it rejected a series of motions by Orthodox parties to debate the issue of autopsies. The religious bloc consisting of the National Religious Party and the Poale Agudat Israel, both members of Premier Golda Meir’s coalition Government, and the Agudat Israel, charged that over the past 20 months 874 “illegal” autopsies were performed at four Israeli hospitals. They claimed that such autopsies were in one out of every four deaths. But the Knesset turned down three agenda motions on the subject and voted 32-19 not to refer the issue to a Knesset committee.

Religious members shouted citations from the Bible and Halacha (Jewish religious law) to back up their contention that autopsies were a “desecration.” Their legal case was based on a report by the State Controller’s office which criticized the way some autopsies were performed. The report said that in some cases no physician’s signature was found on instructions to perform an autopsy. But Minister of Health Israel Barzilai said that even in cases where a document lacked an official signature, it didn’t mean that doctors picked up their scalpels and performed autopsies on a whimsical basis.

Mr. Barzilai said that a new system to supervise post-mortems would be instituted on the basis of the recommendations of a committee of two doctors and a lawyer. This however did not satisfy the Orthodox who have been long campaigning to abolish autopsies. In the voting, the religious parties were supported by the Gahal (Herut-Liberal alignment) and the Free Center faction. The Independent Liberal faction found the whole matter distasteful and walked out of the chamber before the vote.

(In New York, 19 Hasidic students were arraigned in Manhattan and Brooklyn courts yesterday and 16 others were given summonses on charges of defacing buildings with paint and posters and conducting disorderly demonstrations. The youths, all students at the United Satmar Talmudic Academy in the Williams burgh section of Brooklyn, were protesting alleged “forced” and “illegal” autopsies in Israel.

(New York Criminal Court Judge Louis A. Cioffi released 15 of the students for a hearing June 20 but denied a request by Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Gribetz to set bail. They were arrested for allegedly conducting demonstrations outside the Israel Discount Bank, Hadassah headquarters and Korvette’s department store. They posted bills calling on Jews to attend a demonstration today outside of the Israeli Consulate General, sponsored by the American Committee for Safeguarding Human Dignity in Israel.)