WITHDRAWING OR WITHHOLDING NUTRITION

permanent, irreversible inability to perform mitzvot gives this person the same theological status as the decapitated person or the one with the broken neck bone. Just as there is no obligation to provide any form of medical treatment to either of these individuals, so there is no obligation to provide treatment to the patient in the persistent vegetative state. Nutrition, hydration and artificial ventilation may be withheld or withdrawn.

Notes 1. Pope Pius XII "The Prolongation of Life", An Address to an International Congress of Anesthesiologists , 24 November 1957, The Pope Speaks 4(1957) pp. 395-396. Quoted in Lisa Sowle Cahill ,"Respecting Life and Causing Death in the Medical Context", in J. Pohier and D.

Mieth, eds., Suicide and the Right to Dic, Edinburgh , 1985.

2. For a full discussion see"Perspectives from Catholic Theology" by Reverend Edward J. Bayer, S.T.D. in Joanne Lynn, MD., By No Extraordinary Means, Bloomington, 1986, pp. 89-98.

3. See especially Fred Rosner , Modern Medicine and Jewish Ethics , New York , 1991, pp. 274ff.

4. Much of this theology comes from Eugene B. Borowitz . His Renewing the Covenant, Philadelphia , 1991, has been particularly influential in my thinking.

5. See Rosner , pp. 263-277.

6. The liberal Jewish sources discuss these issues in various responsa. The key sources are Reform Responsa For Our Time#17, American Reform Responsa#76, 77, 78 and 79(note also the discussion following#78), Questions and Reform Jewish Answers#156, 159, and 160. Traditional Jewish sources include 7zitz Eliezer 14, 80. The Tzitz Eliezer summarizes the positions of others, and presents his own position.

7. Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 339:1.

8. Moshe Feinstein quoted in Rosner , p. 240.

9. b. Qiddushin 71b. 10. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Rotzeah 2:8

11. b. Hullin 21a.

12. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Tumat HaMet 1:15

10