7

Woodchopper Revisited 23 be medically futile.

1. R. Immanuel Jakobovits. One of the early pioneers of the discipline that came to be known as Jewish bioethics,’® R. Immanuel Jakobovits discusses the treatment of the terminally ill in a 1956 article that appeared in an Orthodox halakhic journal.” Then chief rabbi of Ireland, future chief rabbi of the United Kingdom , and a preeminent figure in the discipline that came to be known as Jewish bioethics, having previously established that Jewish law forbids any positive action undertaken to shorten human life,” Jakobovits declares that “the rules are entirely different” when it comes to taking no action to extend the life of the goses or to remove an impediment to his death. Basing his analysis upon all three of our“basepoint” texts, he adds an important element to the discussion of Isserles ’s permit to remove an impediment to death. The commentators to the Shulchan Arukh notice an apparent contradiction among the list of examples that Isserles cites. It is forbidden to remove the pillows and mattress from beneath the goses, even though this action could be defined as the removal of an impediment to death(the feathers), because it necessarily involves the physical movement of the goses. If so, why is it permitted to remove the salt from his tongue? Doesn’t that also require physical contact and the movement of his body?” An answer is anticipated in Shiltey Giborim, a 16th-century commentary to the Halakhot of Alfasi:* just as it is forbidden to hasten the death of the dying person, it is also forbidden to introduce a factor into his situation — such as placing salt on his tongue— that would unnecessarily delay his otherwise inevitable and imminent death. For this reason, it is permitted to remove that factor from the scene, even if the removal involves a minimal amount of contact with the patient’s body.*'“From this,” writes Jakobovits,“we learn that not only is it permitted to remove an impediment to death but also that it is forbidden to hinder unnecessarily the departure of the soul and thus extend the suffering of the patient(hacholeh).”