SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA

The chief source of the discussion is derivable from the Talmud in Avodah Zarah 27b, where the question is whether a Jew should submit to the medical attention of a heathen healer. The question arose because the heathens in those days would be suspected of putting the Jewish patient to death. So, too, a heathen was not permitted to circumcise. Of course this does not apply to Christian doctors, nor even in the case of heathens to a physician of proven skill. It applies to a heathen healer whose skill is dubious and whose motives are questionable. In discussing the question whether to use even such a dangerous pagan healer, the answer is that it depends on how sick the Jew is. If there is a fair chance that he might recover, that is, if the probabilities are equally balanced whether he will live or whether he will die, then we may not risk that fifty-fifty chance and employ the dangerous pagan. But if it is strongly probable that he is dying anyhow, then the risk of using the help of the pagan is permitted. The reason given in the Talmud for this distinction is stated as a principle, namely,"We do not put too much importance on the last moments of life," En mashgihin lehayei shaah. In other words, the last few moments of a dying man might as well be risked since they

are not of too much importance. So, too, the law is stated in Maimonides , Yad Hil. Rotzeah, XII, 9, and so in the Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 155,#1.

Of course the principle that"we do not put t00 much importance on the last moments. of life," hayei shaah, does not mean that we may hasten death. That is clearly forbidden. We may not hasten death by any action. To that extent, we do care for the last hour; but on the other hand, if there is a fair chance that a person may actually be healed from his sickness, we may risk that last hour. This willingness to take a chance with the last hour for the sake of healing is clearly stated by Nachmanides in his Torat Haadam, p. 11d(Venice ed.) He says we disregard the dubiousness of"the life of the hour”(i.e., the last dying hour) in the face of the possibility that he might live for a considerable time.