26 Mark Washofsky

2. Rabbi Barukh Rabinovitz. Writing in 1979 in the medical-halakhic journal Asya,*’ Barukh Rabinovitz addresses the ruling by Isserles (i.e. the woodchopper , the salt, etc.) as follows:

This halakhah is quite significant in considering the workings of modern medicine. In their efforts to save a patient’s life(the doctors) will attach him to all sorts of machines(kol miney mekhonot) that deliver oxygen and medications to all parts of his body. As long as the body is connected to these devices, it can remain alive in what the physicians call“a vegetative state” for a very long time.... The question: is it permissible to disconnect these devices so long as the patient’s vital signs continue to function? The physician has indeed given up all hope of restoring the patient to normal(tiviim) and spontaneous life, but the patient can continue to exist in this state of artificial life(chayim malakhutiim). Is the physician permitted to bring an end to that life? This is a problem that we encounter in hospitals almost every day. Many physicians ask what they are supposed to do, for the patient will die at the moment they disconnect the device. Is this not to be defined as causing death by active means...?

This halakhah, which distinguishes between shortening the life of the goses and the removal of an impediment to the departure of his soul— that is, the artificial extension of the life of the goses[my emphasis—. MW] supplies a clear answer to this question. The machine operates for all practical purposes to delay artificially the departure of the soul.... It is obligatory, therefore, to disconnect the patient from the machine and to allow nature to take its course until he dies.

Rhetoric is present here as well. The phrase“all sorts of machines” expresses something of the bewilderment and frustration of the layperson at the vast array of modern technological marvels that,