SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA

it is the inbreathing of His spirit. Man is more than a minute particle of the great mass known as society; he is the child of God , created in His image."The spirit of God hath made me," avers Job in the midst of his suffering,"and the breath of the Almighty gives me life"(Job 33:4). Thus, human life, coming from God , is sacred, and must be nurtured with great care. And man, bearing the divine image, is endowed with unique and hidden worth and must be treated with reverence.

This principle- which is basic to Judaism , and to which we probably owe whatever spiritual progress that has been made through the centuries- finds clear embodiment in the halakhah, in Rabbinic law. The Rabbis were no inflexible legalists; they recognized that not under all circumstances could we condemn unfeelingly the man who chose the way of self-destruction to escape from his hard lot. Yet in formulating the law, they proved uncompromising. The formal rites of mourning, they declared, shall be suspended in the case of one of sound and mature mind who deliberately and of his own volition has laid violent hands on himself; only those rites may be performed the omission of which would give undue offense to the bereaved family(Semahot 2.1-5). Likewise, in the case of one who is in dying condition, the law prohibits anyone else from employing any positive and direct means to hasten his death, no matter from what protracted an ailment he may suffer(Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 339). To abridge in some positive and direct manner the duration of life by a single second is tantamount to the shedding of blood (Shab. 151b).

Yet Rabbinic law sanctions the use of indirect and negative means to facilitate a peaceful death, such as the elimination of noise and the withholding of stimulants(Yoreh Deah 339; Avodah Zarah 18a). In the eyes of the law, the causes which may retard the natural process and thus delay the moment of death are artificial, and may therefore be removed. Not so, however, when that which is withheld is a natural physical requirement and essential to sustain life. No nourishment,