animals were not deemed absolute and as Moses Sofer says, by good fortune and by medicine certain ailments can be cured.
Our question becomes more specific: Is there a point where it would be considered morally wrong to apply modern devices? Let us say a patient is dying of cancer and is in great pain, and his heart has blessedly stopped; is it morally right to revive him, as can often be done, only that he may suffer longer? There is a general principle on this question which is derivable from Jewish tradition. It goes back to the narrative in the Talmud , Ketuvot 104a. Rabbi Judah the Prince was dying in great suffering. The rabbis insisted on ceaselessly praying so that he be kept alive a little longer; but his famous servant-woman(who is often referred to with honor in the Talmud ) threw an earthen jar from the roof in the midst of the praying rabbis in order to stop their prayers so that Rabbi Judah might peacefully die. The Spanish scholar , Nissim Gerondi (to Nedarim 40a top), says that while it is our duty to pray for a sick person that he may recover, there come times when we should pray for God ’s mercy that he may die. So, too, in Sefer Hasidim,#315-318, basing its opinion on the statement of Ecclesiastes :"There is a time to live and a time to die," says as follows:"If a man is dying, do not pray too hard that his soul return and that he revive from the coma. He can at best live only a few days and in those days he will endure great suffering. So,'there is a time to die.”"(See other such references in Reform Responsa, p. 117 ff.) In other words, according to the spirit of Jewish tradition just as a man has the right to live, so there come times when he has a right to die. And we have no right to deprive him of that peaceful departure. The Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 339, makes it clear that while we may do nothing to hasten death, we should not do anything to prevent its coming when it is inevitable.
The basic question here involved is: How much importance should we give to the last few hours of life of a dying man? Would we consider these last few hours so important that we would encourage the doctor to give him stimulants to keep him alive for another half hour and another half hour?