Does the Golem Feel Pain? Moral Instincts and Ethical Dilemmas Concerning Suffering and the Brain.

Pain has variously been used as a means of punishment, extracting information, or testing commitment, as a tool for education and social control, as a commodity for sacrifice, and as a draw for sport and entertainment. Attitudes concerning these uses have undergone major changes in the modern era. Normative convictions on what is right and wrong are generally attributed to religious tradition or to secular-humanist reasoning.

Alopecia areata universalis in an infant.

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is common during childhood and rarely reported in infants. The four reported cases of AA in infants all exhibited circumscribed patches of alopecia that appeared at birth or shortly thereafter.

Objective: We report a case of alopecia areata universalis that developed after birth along with fingernail changes of shortening (onychomadesis) and onycholysis.

Principles and concepts of brain death and organ donation: the Jewish perspective.

The harvesting of organs for transplantation is dependent on a stringent definition of brain death. Different societies have had to struggle with their cultural heritage, adapting it to conform to the advances in medical science and the need of the sick. In this article, the development of the concept of brain death as it applies to organ transplantation in Judaism is outlined.