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Jewish Perspectives on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Ze'ev W. Falk
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Extract

Editor's Note: On September 19, 1998 Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University, Ze'ev Falk died during the preparation of this manuscript. His place as a major contemporary scholar in the field of law and religion led the editors to publish here that portion of the manuscript Professor Falk had completed, plus references he intended to explore in later sections of the manuscript.

At present, the question arises, with respect to terminal patients, whether certain life can be considered worthwhile and reconcilable with human dignity. As a result of Kantian philosophy, modern people tend to assume that human beings are able, and should aspire, to make judgments regarding their life and bodies as well as their souls. In this view, a patient should be given full information about his or her situation and about the alternatives. Using this information, he or she should have the capacity to decide by him/herself what course of action is to be taken. In the modern view, even a patient in a coma should be treated according to the expression of his or her will, for example as formulated in a “Living Will.”

Biblical and rabbinical thought seem to have reflected an understanding for suicide. However, suicide belies a key issue unique to Judaism: why, in the course of Jewish suffering and Judaism's struggle to survive, suicide became unacceptable.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , 1998 , pp. 379 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1998

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References

1. BT Berakhot 5a.

2. BT BT Sabbat 88b; Ta'anit 8a; Bava Metsia 85a; Sanhedrin 101a.

3. Quoted by R. Jacob Josef of Polnoye: Ben Porat Josef, 82b; Sefer Baal Shem Tov, Balaq 16.

4. Quoted in R. Jacob Josef: Toledot Jacob Josef, Eqev, 180c; Sefer Baal Shem Tov, Bereshit 25.

5. BT Berakhot 5b.

6. R. Judah Loew of Prague: Netivot ‘Olam, 2, 175.

7. R. Moses Teitelbaum: Yismach Moshe, 1, 187a.

8. Jakobovits, Immanuel, Medical Experimentation on Humans in Jewish Law, in: Rosner, Fred and Bleich, J. David, eds, Jewish Bioethics 381 (1978)Google Scholar.

9. Gen 1:27Google Scholar.

10. BT BQ 91b; Gen. Rabba 34:13; Hagadol, MidrashGen 9:5Google Scholar.

11. Judges 16:30Google Scholar.

12. BT Yevamot 78b. (1 Sam 31:1–6Google Scholar; 2 Sam 1:6–16Google Scholar).

13. BT Ketubbot 33b.

14. 2 Sam 17:23Google Scholar.

15. Josephus, , Wars 7:8–9Google Scholar.

16. M Bava Qama 8;6; compare Tosafot Bava Qama 91b, s.w. hachovel, ela.

17. BT Bava Qamma 91b. According to another view, a priori he must not injure himself, but a posteriori, there is no sanction.

18. Josephus, , Wars 3:8–9Google Scholar.

19. Tosefta Bava Qama 9:32; compare Lieberman: Tosefta Kifshutah ad loc.p. 111.

20. JT Bava Qama 8:11, 6b-c; BT Bava Qama 91a, 92a.

21. On assisted suicide in Jewish law see Cohen, Alfred, Whose Body? Living with Pain, 32 J of Halacha and Contemporary Socy 39, 43f (1996)Google ScholarPubMed.

22. Such as R. Menachem Hame'iri and others quoted by Shitah Mequbbetset Bava Qama.

23. Gen Rabba 34:13, referring also to Dan 3:17–19Google Scholar.

24. Compare Rosner, Fred, The Jewish Attitude Toward Euthanasia, in Rosner, Fred and Bleich, J. David, eds, Jewish Bioethics 253, 257 (Hebrew Pub. Co., 1979)Google Scholar; Carmi, Amnon, Law and Medicine 37 (1987)Google Scholar; Steinberg, Abraham, 7 Encyclopedia Hilkhatit-Refu'it 16 (1988)Google Scholar.

25. Compare Weiner, , Ye Shall Surely Heal: Medical Ethics from a Halakhic Perspective 5 (1996)Google Scholar.