ViewpointEnd-of-life: Jewish perspectives
Section snippets
Beliefs
Judaism's positions on issues in health care stem from its fundamental convictions.1 Those relevant to the end of life include: the body belongs to God; human beings have both the permission and the obligation to heal; and, ultimately, human beings are mortal.
Doctor-patient relationship
Because the body belongs to God, Jews must seek both preventive and curative medical care and follow the expert's advice in preserving their health. When several forms of therapy are medically legitimate but offer different benefits and
General ideas and categories
Because every person's body belongs to God, a patient does not have the right either to commit suicide or to enlist the aid of others in the act, and anybody who does aid in this plan commits murder. The patient does have the right, however, to pray to God to permit death to come (RaN, B Nedarim 40a; the Talmud records such prayers: B Ketubbot 104a, B Bava Mezia 84a, and B Ta'anit 23a).
Jewish sources on withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment are sparse. This lack of guidance poses
General principles
The treatment of autopsy and transplantation in Jewish law depends on two primary principles: kavod ha'met, that we should render honour to the dead body as God's property; and pikkuah nefesh, the obligation to save people's lives (B Sanhedrin 74a-b).
Autopsies
A 1949 agreement between the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel and Hadassah Hospital that was later adopted as Israeli law states that because autopsies represent an invasion of the body, which we should respect, they are not to be done
Social support of the sick
Caring for an individual is not a matter of physical ministrations alone. The Jewish tradition, therefore, imposes the obligation of biqqur holim—visiting the sick. Jewish sources maintain that visitors should sit on the same plane as the patient, enable the patient to talk about the illness, ensure that a will has been prepared, engage the patient in discussion of the usual topics they share (politics, sports, etc), and pray with and for the patient. The Jewish tradition, then, obligates us
References (27)
Fundamental beliefs underlying Jewish medical ethics
- et al.
Medical care at the end of life
The process of dying
- et al.
Methodological problems: the case of Jewish medical ethics
Organ transplants
- et al.
Organ transplantation in Jewish law
Time of death
Brain death and heart transplant: the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's directives
Updating the criteria of death
Conservative Judaism
(1976)The definition of death
Conservative Judaism
(1976)