Two bills that would allow doctors to refrain from
administering lifesaving care at a patient's request received
approval by a Knesset plenum in a preliminary reading last
week.
The bill's proponents, Roman Bronfman (Meretz) and Michael
Eitan (Likud), agreed to the government's request to freeze
the legislative proceedings for a period of two months to
allow the government to draft a bill of its own that will be
incorporated into the present two bills and because of the
ethical, halachic and legal sensitivity of the issue.
The bill was supported by 41 MKs representing the majority of
parties in the Knesset, with 17 no-votes and 4 abstentions.
The opponents were from United Torah Jewry, Shas, the Mafdal,
Am Echad, Eliezer Cohen (HaIchud HaLeumi), Inbal Gavrieli
(Likud) and Michael Gorolovsky (Likud). The abstainers were
Yuval Steinitz (Likud), Gila Gamliel (Likud), Michael
Melchior (Labor) and Muhammed Bracha (Chadash).
Health Minister Dani Naveh called it "one of the heaviest
moral, legal and halachic issues Israeli society has had to
contend with," but noted there is a tendency to move from an
approach that the doctor is the only figure involved in
decision-making to an approach in which the patient's right
to make fateful decisions regarding his life are taken more
and more into consideration.
He said after the government bill receives Knesset approval
in a first reading the appropriate committee will have to
grapple with highly complex issues before being brought for
second and third readings, such as defining who is
"incurable" and who is "terminally ill."
The bills that received preliminary approval last week apply
in cases where according to the doctors' prognosis the
patient has a life expectancy of less than six months.
During the Knesset discussions MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni lodged
harsh criticism against the bill, saying it compromises the
sanctity of life, one of the most sacred values in Judaism.
"The concept of the preservation of human life under any
circumstances is totally imprinted into our way of life. Over
sofek pikuach nefesh we even desecrate Yom Kippur.
What is happening here is very grave," he said, stressing
that the legislation would make it possible to opt not to
extend life. "This is simply appalling," he said, hinting
that the bill's message could encourage murder because in the
age of budget cuts in the health care system, "Who knows what
will happen after this preliminary reading to people who are
sick or elderly and their lives have to be saved?"
MK Nissim Zeev (Shas) said, "These are bills that seek to
permit murder. Simply murder." He also criticized the bill's
definition of a dying, terminally ill patient as one expected
to live no more than six months. HaKodosh Boruch Hu
can do anything, he said, as we have seen in cases of
patients who were told their time had come yet miraculously
lived much longer than the doctors anticipated.
