Reply To: Waiter’s finger was in my my soup!

Avram in MD, to clarify further, pikuach nefesh creates a situation of “d’chuya” (the prohibitions are pushed aside), not “hutra” (the prohibitions are permitted – as you call it “suspended”).

Therefore, when someone must eat food which is ossur (e.g. treif or eating on yom kippur or need to eat prohibited kodshim etc) we give first the least prohibited foods first before resorting to more serious prohibitions.

This is called: מאכילים אותו הקל קל תחילה, (Yuma 83a), and as codified by rambam (Hilchos Macholos haOsuros 14:17, S.A. O.Ch. 718:9).

It is important and practical that in a case of pikuach nefesh that shabbos needs to be desecrated, one must try to see if it suffices to only do issurim d’rabbon of shabbos, and if still required to do issurim d’oraysa, to minimize the amount of issurim. Therefore, if one has the choice, better to take a taxi or ambulance to hospital than drive the car to the hospital on shabbos – since a taxi or ambulance involves less issurim.