Mark Washofsky

suffering great pain, she prays for his death. When the students do not cease their own prayers, she drops a glass vessel from the attic to the floor. The students, startled by the crashing sound, cease their prayers for an instant, and in that instant Rabbi dies. The ethicists draw an analogy from the students’ prayer to modern medical technologies that are successful in keeping terminal patients alive even as they offer no hope for recovery. If we are entitled to interrupt the prayers, the reasoning goes, we are similarly permitted to turn off the machines and to discontinue the futile treatment.

The third text(B. Avodah Zarah 18a) is the story of the martyr’s death of R. Chaninah b. Teradyon during the Hadrianic persecutions of the second century C. E. The Romans tied R. Chaninah to a stake, wrapped him in a Torah scroll, and set him ablaze. In addition, they placed wet woolen sponges on his body to retard the flames in order that he die more slowly and painfully. R. Chaninah’s students implored their teacher to open his mouth, swallow the flames, and thus die more quickly. He responded:“Let the One who gave me life take it away; one should not bring physical harm to oneself.”’* Eventually, a Roman officer at the scene offers to remove the wet sponges and to increase the intensity of the fire in return for R. Chaninah’s assurance that the officer might receive life in the World to Come. R. Chaninah accepts the offer; and“his soul departed quickly.” A heavenly voice thereupon affirms the righteousness of both men when it declares:“R. Chaninah b. Teradyon and the officer are destined for life in the World to Come.” Some obvious problems are associated with learning bioethics from a narrative concerning a martyr’s death. And a glaring contradiction is to be resolved: Whereas removing the wet sponges could conceivably be defined as the removal of an impediment to death, to increase the intensity of the fire seems more akin to an active measure designed to hasten death. Still, provided that these difficulties can be successfully addressed,” the story might serve as an analogy or precedent for the removal of life support and other therapies when these are judged to