SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:The Jewish religion’s view on euthanasia

The release of Jack Kevorkian, known as “Dr. Death,” from a Michigan prison earlier this month has prompted reflection once again on the subject of euthanasia.

What has not been said before in the medical community is that Judaism regards most deaths to be gradual, rather than instantaneous. The expression that “the patient or individual is dying,” reflects that for many of us that death is a process that comes in stages or takes many, many years to occur. An incurable terminable illness is like a flickering candle that takes a while to go out. In Jewish terms, a person who lives for even several months with an incurable disease has lost that quality of life; he might be simply existing or coping with life rather than living life. Medically, permission to withhold or withdraw medications and machines would then apply to people who are in this state with a consultation of a team of professionals.

Let’s assume permission was granted to withhold medicine. This is a form of legal euthanasia. Many of us, too, have had a legal binding agreement that no heroic measures be taken to maintain our lives if they are medically failing. This is also euthanasia.

The intent of this column is to take away some of the guilt we all have felt at the loss of a loved one, when death was thought to be a blessing because of the pain and anguish that the individual or family has experienced.

God wants us to rejoice in life. Too many of us grieve for actions we have withheld from loved ones. We are to mourn, but continue living. We all experience the death of a loved one, but not our own death. This is one of the functions of hospice, to help the family of the dying.

Withdrawing or withholding life support from terminally ill patients is sometimes justified by Jewish law by its mandate that “we are not to prolong the process of dying.”

Unfortunately, the only person I know who got life right was the fictitious Goldilocks. Simply, all of us either feel that we die too soon or that we live too long. Nobody gets life “just right.”