Death has become part of modern living. To be sure, people
who lived always died. The "modern innovation" is murder. To
be sure, people have always killed each other. The "modern
innovation" is that it has become legally sanctioned and
socially acceptable.
The issue was brought to the fore in Israel last week by
press reports of the performance of a "mercy" killing in
Hadassah Hospital in Yerushalayim. This was the first widely
publicized legalized killing under a law that was passed by
Meretz in a Parliamentary maneuver four years ago.
Professor Avinoam Reces, a neurologist and senior staff
member of the Ein Kerem medical center, unhooked Itai Arad, a
49-year-old former air force pilot who suffered from the
degenerative muscle disease known as Lou Gehrig's Disease,
from his respirator. Arad, who only needed intermittent
respiration, died some 24 hours later.
Arad fought for years to die painlessly. He received a court
order permitting this two years ago upon his request. Four
months ago he asked the doctors in Meir Hospital of Kfar Sava
to disconnect him and allow him to die but they refused.
Reces was more agreeable and, after getting the concurrence
of senior members of the health field in Israel and a
reaffirmation of the court order, he went ahead.
Four years ago this month, a special psak signed by
HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt'l, as well as by
ylct'a HaRav Y. S. Eliashiv, HaRav S. Wosner and HaRav
N. Karelitz declared that even a terminally ill patient must
get normal care. His end must not be hastened "in order to
lessen his suffering, by not giving him food or medical
treatment, and certainly it is forbidden to hasten his end by
an act . . ."
Holland has had a law similar to Israel's for some time. The
experience there shows that it is difficult to restrict the
"mercy killing" once it gets started. For example, though the
patient's consent is required, doctors in Holland admitted
that they sometimes assumed this consent in the case of
patients who were unable to communicate, when it was
"obvious" to the doctors that they would want to die.
Murder is one of the three cardinal sins but it is
nonetheless easy to forget that there is a powerful push to
kill. It is part of the yetzer hora whose goal is to
maximize death: all sin pushes the transgressor closer to
death.
Death presents the apparent conquest of the man by the forces
of nature, and this suggestion is deeply antithetical to
Torah. The dead body is the apparent victory of the physical
forces that, throughout his life, struggle with the soul and
try to drag man lower and lower toward his material side.
After death the soul, the main part of man, is no longer
evident. It has departed. The body remains, the apparent
victor.
Because of this, pagan society was always fascinated by
death. Many societies -- such as the ancient Romans --
worshiped dead ancestors. They saw it as the ultimate power,
and as such they felt it necessary to placate it as they did
the other, lesser forces that they saw around them.
We are not afraid to confront death since we know that our
soul is what is really important and it persists and even
flourishes after leaving the earthly sphere. On the other
hand, we struggle mightily against it, since we know that it
is the end of any opportunity for growth, which is found only
in this material world.
We must not forget that even after the Torah explained our
choice as between life and death, ". . . life and death have
I placed before you . . ." it was still necessary to add: " .
. . and you should choose life." (Devorim 30:19)
This is a message we must spread.
