ISRAEL BETTAN

however little the amount required, may be denied a dying patient whose condition seems hopeless and his pain great, in order to hasten his death (Tel Talpiyot, Letter 42, vol. 30, Budapest , 1923).

Of course, we liberal rabbis have always claimed the right, in the interest of a progressive faith, to modify Rabbinic law and to remove what we regard as an obstacle in the advance of the spirit. And, indeed, we have eliminated many an old restriction which, though meant to safeguard Judaism , proved to obscure its essential nature. But we have never sought to nullify an effective Rabbinic implementation of a vital spiritual principle.

The Jewish ideal of the sanctity of human life and the supreme value of the individual soul would suffer incalculable harm if, contrary to the moral law, men were at liberty to determine the conditions under which they might put an end to their own lives and the lives of other men.

*Walter Jacob ed., American Reform Responsa, New York , 1983,#78.