SUICIDE, ASSISTED SUICIDE, ACTIVE EUTHANASIA

Talmud), the statutory(Codes) and case law(Responsa) are clear the rabbis apply the texts and precedents to the current case in order to arrive at a legal decision. Where the rabbis are faced with situations without precedent in Jewish law, they seek to find within the law, principles which will allow them to draw a proper analogy from one set of circumstances to a very different set of circumstances. It is important to recognize that"The[rabbis]{in this system} are juxtaposing‘the particulars of[their] own case and various halakhic precedents and principles, thereby decid[ing] in which category[their] own case falls. Then they must apply these precedents and principles to the situation at hand.’" He warns that similarity of method does not preclude pluralism of response. The precedents can be applied leniently or stringently and there can be disagreement about relevance of precedents in any particular case."Affirmation of a common methodology in no way ensures a single substantive outcome."™

Ethics refers to the standard or yardstick, the general principles we use in making our decisions. Ethics asks the question: What is the morally correct thing to do in any particular situation? Law answers a different question: what is permitted or prohibited by a particular society and what is a person’s liability for punishment. Law defines the limits of proper conduct for a citizen of a particular society. Laws may be just or unjust, ethical or unethical. In fact, there are many areas of law where ethics is not a relevant consideration. An ideal society seeks to construct a legal system based on concepts of justice and fairness. In other words, a just society seeks to construct an ethical legal system. If Reform is to recover halakhah and to use an halakhic method it will need to be one which makes ethics central.

It is important to distinguish our way of interpreting halakhah from the traditionalists for a number of reasons, but most notably because we do not share the ideological assumptions which undergird their mode of thought and reasoning." According to the traditionalists, halakhah is a system of law that is revealed by God and, therefore, what the halakhah prescribes or proscribes is ethical’ because it is

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