Dr. Michael Braver writes in his Pe’er Yitzhak that Rabbi Yitzhak Eisik of Zhidachov was once asked to pray for a sick person. When he was told that the doctor has given up all hope for the man, he declared: “The Torah says VeRapo YeRape (Shemoth 21:19)- and he shall provide for cure.’ Our sages comment (Bava Kamma 85a) Mi Kan Shenitan Reshut LeRofe Lerap’ot- from here we learn that authorization was granted to the physician to heal! The physician has permission to heal, but he has no right to despair of a human life!”
The late Aharon Yaakov Greenberg quotes in his Itturei Torah (on Shemot 21:19) a similar story about the Hozeh of Lublin. The Hozeh was once approached by a relative to pray for him, because the physician had despaired of his life. The Hasidic leader told the man referring to the above quoted statement in Bava Kamma 85a that the Torah permitted physicians to cure people, but not to despair of their lives.
Greenberg also quotes a saying of Rabbi Menhaem Mendel of Kotzk, who described a physician’s despair of human lives as Ye’ush shelo Midaath (a pun on the Talmudic expression which refers to the unconscious despair regarding a lost object: his despair of a human life stems from a lack of brains!
What we have related about the Hozeh of Lublin and Rabbi Yitzchak Eisik of Zhidachov (it is likewise reported of other rabbis) is told about the Gaon of Vilna. In Divrei Eliyahu, a collection of sayings and comments by the Gaon of Vilna, compiled by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Farfel and Avrahahm David Bloch, we read: “Once the Gaon was told about a certain sick person that his physician had said that there was no cure for him and that he would certainly die. The Gaon remarked: Who authorized the physician to declare that the man wouldn’t live? Our sages said (Bava Kamma 85a) that a physician is authorized to heal. He is permitted to heal but not to say that there is no cure for the patient.
It is interesting to note that two Gedolei Yisrael of different backgrounds- Rabbi Yosef Zechariah Stern of Shavli and Rabbi Shalom Dov Baer Schneersohn — used the same Yiddish tern in condemning doctors who declared that there was no hope for the patient. They are not Baalei Battim (They are not the owners of life, they have no say in this. See R. Jospeh Buxbaum’s introduction to the volume of responsa by R.Y.Z. Stern, published by Machon Yerushalayim and Askavaia DeRebbi by R.MץD. Rivkin, 1953, p. 11).
(excerpt from the article on the Gaon of Vilna) The Jewish Press, Friday, November 14, 1997