The young wife of Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch had fallen ill, and the doctors were unanimous in their opinion that there was no hope of recovery.

When her father-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, was told of the doctors' verdict, he said: “The Talmud raises the issue of a doctor's right to practice medicine. If G-d has afflicted the sick with illness, what right has a human being to intervene? But the Torah itself refers to the doctor's efforts when it says (Exodus 21:19) ‘And heal he shall heal.’ ‘From here we derive,’ say our sages, ‘that a doctor has been given permission to cure.’

“But nowhere,” concluded Rabbi Menachem Mendel, “has a doctor been given the right to condemn a human being as incurable.”