After each source, and at the end of the source sheet, answer the following questions:
What is the text saying?
What values can you derive?
What tensions are present?
How do these sources relate to conflict in your life and in our world?
Did anything resonate with you?
Judaism that each person is sacred, having been created in the image of God, and there is thus a value to life regardless of one’s relative quality or usefulness. Not only is human life itself sacred, but every moment of life is valued, and there is thus an obligation to attempt to save all life, regardless of how much time a person has left to live.
בית הדין אומר לעדים: לפיכך, אדם הראשון נברא לבדו, ללמדכם, כי לגבי כל המשמיד נפש אחת מהעם היהודי, כלומר הורג יהודי אחד, הפסוק מייחס לו אשמה כאילו השמיד שלם שלם. העולם, כפי שאדם היה אדם אחד, שממנו יצאה אוכלוסיית עולם שלם. ולהפך, כל מי שמקיים נפש אחת מהעם היהודי, הפסוק מייחס לו קרדיט כאילו קינן עולם ומלואו.
The court tells the witnesses: Therefore, Adam the first man was created alone, to teach you that with regard to anyone who destroys one soul from the Jewish people, i.e., kills one Jew, the verse ascribes him blame as if he destroyed an entire world, as Adam was one person, from whom the population of an entire world came forth. And conversely, anyone who sustains one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him credit as if he sustained an entire world.
(ז) אֶחָד הַהוֹרֵג אֶת הַבָּרִיא אוֹ אֶת הַחוֹלֶה הַנּוֹטֶה לָמוּת. וַאֲפִלּוּ הָרַג אֶת הַגּוֹסֵס נֶהֱרָג עָלָיו. וְאִם הָיָה גּוֹסֵס בִּידֵי אָדָם כְּגוֹן שֶׁהִכּוּהוּ עַד שֶׁנָּטָה לָמוּת וַהֲרֵי הוּא גּוֹסֵס. הַהוֹרְגוֹ אֵין בֵּית דִּין מְמִיתִין אוֹתוֹ:
(7) Whether a person kills a healthy person, a sick person who is on the verge of dying, or even a person in his actual death throes, the killer should be executed. If, however, one kills a person in his death throes because of wounds inflicted upon him by others - i.e., he was stricken until he was on the verge of death, and he is in his death throes, the killer should not be executed by the court.
Jewish law prohibits most forms of bodily damage, suicide, and assisted suicide. Jewish law also prohibits euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
While assisted suicide and euthanasia are taboo, there are certainly situations in which Jewish law permits withholding aggressive life-sustaining treatments, and according to many Conservative and most Reform rabbis, this even includes withdrawing life-sustaining interventions.
Furthermore, although most rabbis prohibit physician-assisted suicide, it is still possible to have compassion for the suffering of terminally ill individuals who are contemplating such a decision without endorsing or condoning it. After all, there are certain cases of suicide that Jewish law does not endorse, but for which it offers sympathy and permits traditional burial and mourning practices.
In fact, there are even times when Jewish law may permit praying for a suffering terminal patient to die, while at the same time obligating us to do everything possible, including violate the laws of Shabbat, to prolong his or her life. Thus, even while prohibiting this behavior in practice, there is room for showing some level of understanding and compassion to the patient.
It is related that on the day that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi died, the Sages decreed a fast, and begged for divine mercy so that he would not die. And they said: Anyone who says that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi has died will be stabbed with a sword. The maidservant of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi ascended to the roof and said: The upper realms are requesting the presence of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and the lower realms are requesting the presence of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. May it be the will of God that the lower worlds should impose their will upon the upper worlds. However, when she saw how many times he would enter the bathroom and remove his phylacteries, and then exit and put them back on, and how he was suffering with his intestinal disease, she said: May it be the will of God that the upper worlds should impose their will upon the lower worlds. And the Sages, meanwhile, would not be silent, i.e., they would not refrain, from begging for mercy so that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi would not die. So she took a jug [kuza] and threw it from the roof to the ground. Due to the sudden noise, the Sages were momentarily silent and refrained from begging for mercy, and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi died.
We see from this text that although physician assisted suicide may not be advocated by most rabbinic authorities, we can have compassion for the suffering of a dying patient. We must do everything to prolong life, but do nothing to prolong the dying process. As we can keep a patient alive, we must do so, unless the benefit of such actions is counterbalanced by their causing extreme pain and suffering. At that point, Judaism permits a compassionate response of allowing the death process to occur with appropriate palliative care, if this is what the patient or their surrogate desires and their rabbi has ruled accordingly for that specific case.