Jewish Law Responds to American Law 161
Withholding or withdrawing machines or medications from a terminally ill patient, however, does not constitute suicide and is permitted. In my view, but not in[the view of a minority member of the committee] one may also withhold or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from such a patient, for that too falls outside the prohibitions of suicide and assisted suicide.?® There is a tendency in many modern Orthodox Jewish ethics and legal studies to assert as a truism that Judaism is unalterably opposed to euthanasia.“One may not hasten death.... To shorten the life of a person, even a life of agony and suffering, is forbidden...[I]t is equivalent to murder.”? This is a direct response to the stricture in the biblically mandated specification of medical ethics.“And provide that he be healed, yes, healed.”?! This leads to the peremptory denial of any form of euthanasia. A prominent scholar of our time has stated this position with vigor. “The practice of euthanasia- whether active or passive- is contrary to the teachings of Judaism . Any positive act designed to hasten the death of the patient is equated with murder in Jewish law... No matter how laudable the intentions of the person per
forming the act of mercy-killing may be, his deed constitutes an
7292
act of homicide.
An early and oft-quoted example of refusal to accelerate death by euthanasia is that of Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradyon, the second- century martyr who was executed by the Romans in 135 C.E. by burning him at the stake for violating the edict prohibiting the teaching of Jewish law. As the flames were enveloping him his students called out,“Open thy mouth[they said] so that the fire enter into thee[and put an end to his agony]. He replied, ‘Let Him who gave me[my soul] take it away, but no one should injure himself[i.e. hasten his own death.].”?® A modern commentator reminds us that this was a refusal on his part to commit suicide but that Rabbi Hananiah?** permitted the executioner to remove impediments that were delaying his death.:
In another tractate of the Talmud the principle is enunciated with clarity,“a dying person(goses) is considered as a hen being in all respects.”?’® The text elaborates,“one may not b his jaws, nor plug up his openings, nor place a vessel of meta or an object that cools on his navel until he dies, as it 1 written(in
::: i i olumn) is Ecclesiastes )?%”‘Before the silver cord(i.e. spinal 2 4 i“ 7298 Moreover, one may“not close the eyes
snapped asunder. t is shedding
a dying person. One who touches it or moves 1