I was discussing the principle this morning with a talmid chachom - that an innocent person is not sacrificed for the good of others. This is a major principle in halacha which is obviously relevant to the issue of child abuse.
The talmid chachom I was discussing this asked the following. He said that major poskim had said that brain death is actually death. Therefore doing a heart transplant by removing the heart of a brain dead person was permitted according to these poskim. However he had heard that even though these poskim held this way - they would not give a general heter to allow heart transplants with brain dead indiviuals because they didn't trust non-Jewish or non-religious doctors to decide whether a person was in fact brain dead. His question was, "So isn't this in effect sacrificing the individual who needs a heart transplant for the sake of maintaining the religious standards of the community - i.e., the welfare of others?" A possible answer is that we are not simply sacrificing a possible recipient by denying him a heart transplant but rather we are not sacrificing the donor - whom we have a sofek about whether they are dead for the sake of the possible recipient - even if the possible recipient will definitely die if he doesn't have a transplant.
Rema(Y.D. 157:1): ... If a non-Jew tells Jews that one Jew should be handed over to them to be killed, the Jews should not give one over unless they specify who they want (Mishna Terumos Chapter 8 and Rambam Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah Chapter 5). Others say that even if they specify a particular Jews he is not to be given over except if he is liable to the death penalty such as Shiva ben Bichri (Beis Yosef citing Rashi and the Ran). Similarly in the case of a group of women. If non-Jews say to give over one woman to be raped, they should all be raped rather than give over a single Jewish soul (Rambam).
The talmid chachom I was discussing this asked the following. He said that major poskim had said that brain death is actually death. Therefore doing a heart transplant by removing the heart of a brain dead person was permitted according to these poskim. However he had heard that even though these poskim held this way - they would not give a general heter to allow heart transplants with brain dead indiviuals because they didn't trust non-Jewish or non-religious doctors to decide whether a person was in fact brain dead. His question was, "So isn't this in effect sacrificing the individual who needs a heart transplant for the sake of maintaining the religious standards of the community - i.e., the welfare of others?" A possible answer is that we are not simply sacrificing a possible recipient by denying him a heart transplant but rather we are not sacrificing the donor - whom we have a sofek about whether they are dead for the sake of the possible recipient - even if the possible recipient will definitely die if he doesn't have a transplant.