The Prescription Death Bill was debated by the Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday, 10 Sivan 5774. The bill sponsored by MK (Yesh Atid) Ofir Shelach seeks to pass into law mercy killings accompanied by a physician’s orders. The ministerial committee passed the bill.
If passed into law, a physician would be permitted to write a prescription to deliver a lethal dose of medication to a dying patient, to end one’s suffering. If the Knesset passes the bill into law, a doctor writing a fatal prescription will not be liable for any criminal activity under the law.
Shelach told his colleagues the problem is a big one, widespread, and one that needs to be addressed. He stated that with today’s technology and medical advancement life can be prolonged. He feels that his bill will give a patient a measure of control over his own life even during his final days. He feels the bill, if passed into law, will eliminate the legal issues faced by physicians wishing to assist one in ending one’s life today.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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16 Responses
It is a gross Chilul Hashem and a huge embarrassment to Shomrei Torah Umitzvos that such a law should be even considered by the country that is supposed to be representing Judaism to the rest of the world, and it being in the media compounds the issue.
Then they can work on requiring physicians to euthanize those whose meaningful lives have ended. The government will set standards for meaningful. Assuming Yesh Atid is on the committee setting the standards, I expect we won’t be too pleased.
Note that euthanasia has a long history in western countries. In fact, the Allies hanged several Germans for it in the late 1940s.
this circus of a state is neither jewish or democratic.
I wanted to cry when I read this.
Judaism doesn’t believe in prolonging “life” just because we can…
“Pulling the plug” (withholding treatment) is a halachicly viable option under certain very specific circumstances this I heard from a yirai shomaim doctor whose profession is treating the terminally ill, I don’t remember if we also went into the issue of actively shortening such a patients’ life with drugs which may be different.
But we certainly don’t hold the catholic attitudes to life and death like sadly most people think.
Straight out of open Orthodxy’s book.
Charlie,
This is your Dov Lipman.
And what keep the doctor and family members from pressuring, tricking, or even forcing the ill person into taking these death pills?
The evil that such a bill would unleash is incredible!
Keeper of the Keys: Once you decide that it is legal for a doctor to kill a patient whose life is deemed no longer worth living, other questions arise:
1. Is is customary and reasonable to kill such a patient (meaning insurance won’t pay for care beyond the point the patient is deemed to be not worth treating, and the doctor could be accused of malpractice for not offing the patient)
2. How do you evaluate a life. There are many in Israel, especially among the zionist elite, who have made it clear that a life devoted to Torah and Mitsvos has no value and that such persons are by definition parisites whose continued existence damages society.
3. As the experience in Germany shows, it is a very short distance from authorizing euthanasia to wholesale slaughter. The road to Auschwitz began with the the euthanisia programs of “worthless persons” in the 1930s.
4. The Catholic position is based on natural law, whereas our position is based both on halacha and our own experience with genocide.
5. The issues pertaining to prolonging life in order to facilitate harvest of body parts, or increasing the hospitals billing of third party insurance (since they don’t get paid once the patient is dead) are totally separate for the discussion of authorizing euthanasia.
We already have a similar danger in USA – Pulling Plug, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) & Withholding Feeding Tube or Withholding Intravenous feeding. Everyone make sure you have a valid Halachic Living Will for your State.
And if a relative holds power of attorney, could he make this decision?!?
Rachmana litzlan!
It’s pretty ironic that yesh ATID is seeking to end life early…
Charlatan,
Why does this bother you more than infanticide aka abortion which takes place in EY too?
it is the patient who decides not the doctors. also if it living when one is in constant pain, tubes stuck up one nose and throat with zero chance of recovery. Does halacha say one must prolong one suffering
Under certain conditions, it is permissable not to connect a sufferring patient to life prolonging machines.
However, once he is connected, it is forbidden to disconnect him as long as he is alive.
Mark Levin: I may be wrong, but although abortion is ossur, I don’t think it carries the same weight as killing full term babies or adults. For example, when a fetus threatens the life of the mother, I believe an abortion is allowed.
#14 – The first half of your statement is correct, the second is not.
Once connected, disconnection is possible again under specific circumstances and of course in cooperation with a posek who is knowledgeable in medicine and halacha.