Keep Dr. Death Behind Bars

To persons who suffer so terribly I can only offer my deepest sympathy and compassion and maybe some Torah insights.
1. Suicide is considered a sin in Jewish law, unless the person is mentally ill, as was Saul. (Trying to kill David, and killing the city of Nov, would also be sins.)
2. Physicians were given express permission in the Torah to heal. If not for that, it would indeed not be allowed. (See commentaries on the verse "and the healer shall heal".)
3. A story circulating in Israel about ten years ago: A doctor, unable to withstand his patient's suffering, "pulled the plug". In a dream, the patient told off the doctor for ending his life. He said he was supposed to suffer a specific amount of time to atone for his misdeeds, and now he will have to suffer much more in the next world. The doctor became Torah observant and keeps telling this story. (If anyone can verify this story, I'll appreciate it.)
4. I think we are allowed to pray for death. The talmud relates that Rabbi Judah the Prince was deathly ill. The Rabbis prayed for his life but his maid prayed for death to relieve him of his terrible pain. Her prayers were answered.
I pray for you to be freed from your pain by whatever means G-d sees fit, hopefuly by a miracle cure.
Please be strong. Every millisecond that you preserve your life, you are serving G-d by doing His will. One day your pain will be over, but your Heavenly reward will never, ever end.
Be well, my friends.

Hi Beverly,

You wrote a very inspiring comment on "The Hero Within", by Sara Y. Rigler. It is those kinds of comments that open up the eyes of others, and help us see life for what it truly is.

I went back to that article today, and noticed your comment; just wanted to express my appreciation for your straightforward inspiration.

Since having my mom die of cancer in September 2005, this article brought some interesting light on assisted dying and end of life issues. I never thought of our bodies like that before. It sounds as if we take care of them and do not own them; just rent them. Hard to totally grasp. But a question does come to mind as to why if someone does take such good care of their body does it have to be given back before another who rents their body and abuses it? And then why if that person who takes such good care can not decide to have his life in an assisted death so as to not suffer or have their families watch them suffer. If G-D owns our bodies then why do we have to suffer and have pain?

I believe that Rabbi Salomon is absolutely right about "Dr. Death". As a Christian, we are taught that we will stand before G-d and give an account of our lives. What we say and what we do are accountable to G-d. If we support sin or those who commit such outlandish sins like what "Dr. Death" has committed, then we to are guilty of the sin just as if we had committed the murders ourselves.

There is no way to dress this pig up. Regardless of what you call it, "Dr. Death" is a murderer and if we support what he did, then we are murderers to.

The best argument i can think of against Dr K is an aish.com article called the Hero Within. Find it on aish search, read it and discover the meaning of the value of life -- even when all you can move are your eyelids.

Rabbi Salomon - perhaps you would consider giving another video, or writing an article of your thoughts on people's comments? I'd really be interested in hearing what you have to say. I know where I stand - and I'm quite firm in my position... I'm a 17 year old girl, and I have been taught to believe that taking someone else's life - whether under the guise of "kindness" or not - is *wrong*. School is over now, but I wonder what my teachers (BY) would have to say on the matter? Please, if you would consider replying to the many people who disagree with you... Thank you for all you do and teach.

As long as Kevorkian will not be actually assisting suicide anymore, and although we may strongly disagree with him, isn't imprisoning him ONLY for his rhetoric going against the concept of "Freedom of Speech"? Why can't we advocate OUR opposing believe while he voices his? If we are confident in our beliefs the truth will, with G-d's help, win. Debate is something Jews have valued throughout history! Imprisoning someone because we disagree with him doesn't sound like it conforms to a free society's value.

Your point is well made-Please continue making it!

Thank you Rabbi Salomon, I am pleased that there are others like myself who believe Kevorkian is wrong. Kevorkian reminds me of Wesley J. Smith's book, "Culture of Death" where some people are left to die with little or no intervention. The whole idea of assisted suicide is so eerie and dark. I admire those physicians who value every second of life, and try to find ways of controlling pain through various drugs.

I have mixed feelings regarding Dr. Kvorkian. As a health professional I would never assist one to end one's life. I generally provide very positive feedback and encouragement to deal with whatever challenges. Yet, I see many patients ending their life using a passive manner instead. One common example is refusing to receive dialysis. Maybe therein lies the difference. Passive is passive, similar to signing DNR/DNI agreements. While aggressive, whether as suicide or homicide,(Dr. Kvorkian) is killing. And what those people need is for Dr. Kvorkian to refer these individuals to therapy or whatever.

So even if we're in excruciating pain and agony, and terminal, we can't be treated as humainly as a beloved pet. What incredable nonsense, but typical fundamentalist thinking! So let's just suck it up; grin and bear it!

Richard

Rabbi Solomon,

I normally would not reply if another person has responded with essentially the same thoughts....but your comments were so out of touch that I felt compelled to respond.

To keep someone in prison for their thoughts is the most evil of commentaries. It is what all dictators impose on their citizens. Second, your comment on who owns our bodies is in fact a religious comment and while I agree with you, because I am a Jew, I worry when our civil authorities take one religious position or another.

In addition, most liberal Jews accept abortion as a right of a woman to exercise control over their bodies. Why do you not take the position of jailing any woman who has ever had an abortion, and who is non-repentant? And their doctors? and the clinic staff? Are the terribly ill, suffering, and near death individuals more important than unborn babies in their mothers wombs?

You are wrong.....wrong....wrong

Rabbi,

As Jews, we have been imprisoned and persecuted over the centuries for our beliefs.

Your comments that this man should stay in prison because, once he is out, he will "continue to espouse his theories" and "work to pass legislation".

Rabbi, that is called FREEDOM in a democratic society. Just because we don't agree with someone's beliefs, should not be reason enough to keep someone in prison, if they have otherwise satisfied their parole requirements.

Your comments are very chilling and very, very distrubing to those of us who cherish freedom. I don't know if you realize how badly it all sounds. You really ought to re-consider this one point in an otherwise fair commentary.

Welcome to the world of people who do not believe the very basic of all basics. eighty percent of our Country, (USA), profess in belief in God, but do not subscribe to the "rest of the story". While drinking their martinis and keeping pace with the rich and famous, in the comfort of their jobs and homes and entertainment, fail to understand the enormity of the fallascious claims he has to sympathy and compassion. Anyone who proposes that he has the right and the knowledge of the termination of a life pre-supposes that he has stood in the place of life-or-death. The person "he is trying to help" has nothing to do with this persons concept of "right to death or life".

Rabbi Solomon may sincerely believe that his life belongs to the deity, and therefore ending it prematurely is wrong, no matter how much he may be suffering. No matter what may happen to Rabbi Solomons physical or mental health in the future, his belief should be respected and no one should do anything to shorten his life, even if that means denying him pain relief.

However to condemn others who do not share his belief in the nature of the deity to unbearable suffering is cruel and arrogant, and it is rather frightening to find such an un-empathetic attitude in a psychotherapist.

Many people can distinguish between "the right to life" and "the duty to live". No one has the right to frustrate the views of those who do not believe that they have a duty to live.

Firstly Dr. Kevorkian will probably die some time this year because he is Losing Fight With Hepatitis C and he is not an evil man he was only trying to end a peoples suffering who would have died anyway.

As a physician, I am not a fan of Dr. Kevorkian either, Rabbi Salomon. It is going down a very slippery slope for a practitioner of the healing arts to presume to be capable of acting as G-d's instrument of death. My personal impression of Dr. Kevorkian does not increase my confidence in his self-anointed role as angel of death.

I'm reminded of a prayer I have heard intoned by the Rabbi in Temple that 'blesses the physicians and surgeons for they are the instruments of Your healing will'. I do not by any stretch of the imagination think that Dr. Kevorkian is what the Rabbi had in mind.

On the other hand, Rabbi, I am concerned by your central premise that takes issue with Dr. Kevorkian's thoughts, as opposed to his actions, and suggests that it is his beliefs that should keep him in prison.

It seems to me that to advance such an argument, which effectively condones incarceration to repress ideas we disagree with, takes one from the playbook of totalitarian regimes that most of us condemn (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago particularly comes to mind).

I enjoyed your commentary, Rabbi, and I will be interested in anything further you would say about my comments.

As a Dutch citizen, and a Jew, and a firm believer, I disagree with Rabbi Salomon. Holland is a country where voluntary Euthanasia is legalized, within very strict rules. I feel that one should have the right to terminate his own live. Rabbi Salomon comments that we do not own our bodies. I disagree and feel that unnecessary suffering of terminally ill patients, AND patients who have other ailments and don't want to live any longer should have that right. Important for each and everyone who feels this way is to make it clear in writing before they are confronted with such an event! Of course, proper psychological and medical assistance should always be available. The USA is as in other moral issues related to health, running behind the facts. Dr. Kevorkian should never have been in jail in the first place!

Regardless of what you think about doctors helping patients die, Dr. Kevorkian seems to be one disturbed individual; for example, google "DR. KEVORKIAN'S ART WORK," and you may wonder if he actually wants to help people (as many doctors do) or merely has a bizarre fascination with death.

God bless.

Rabbi Salomon,

If you feel that "good behavior" is not sufficient basis for a parole. Many parole boards, in fact, do not release prisoners unless they express the kind of remorse that you are expecting of Dr. Kevorkian--and this includes prisoners who, unlike him, maintain their innocence even after years of imprisonment. So perhaps he shouldn't have been released based on the fact that he obviously isn't remorseful of the crimes for which he was convicted.

But your words are disturbing as well. To say he should remain in prison because "he continues to espouse a THEORY with which we don't agree" is to justify imprisonment based on one's beliefs. Certainly we can't keep people imprisoned to prevent them from trying to persuade other of their view, or from trying to effect legislation that conforms with their view in a democratic nation. It's up to us who believe that our bodies are G-d's property, and not our own, to persuade people of that. In a democratic society, we don't get to take the easy way out and just silence those who dissent. It's harder work, but it holds the promise that, when the other side is in control, they cannot silence our voices either.

All the best,

David

Rabbi, I may be wrong in saying this, but it strikes me that you have been fortunate enough not to have been affected by illness or pain. I have a terminal illness that is guaranteed to cause me unbearable pain and suffering before i die and i will also watch my body detoriate in front of me and my family. Nor my family or myself want to go through this. There is no nobility in suffering worse than a dog would be allowed to. We sanctify our lives over animals but yet when an aminal is terminally ill, we end its suffering peacefully. Do not use the argument that suffering allows you to be closer to g-d. Tell me, how is that possible when your incapicated and screaming in pain. No g-d of mine wants me to suffer like a dog and if he does, then he's not fit for worship. I once heard a Rabbi state that the doctors are committing a great sin by providing patients with pain medication as we are numbing their suffering. Its ignorant and disgusting comments like this that turn people away from religion. You say that only g-d can decide when its time to go - but why do we treat ill people that surely extends their life, when otherwise they would of died from their illness. If we take your argument we should leave all patients to suffer with their illness as to not affect their pre-set date with death. Dying with dignity is not like committing suicide because you have depression. Dont be so ignorant. You or no one else has the right to determine how much suffering a terminally ill person should endure. I myself have made plans for my ending, and i also have made peace with Hashem. Also, as a point of reference, suicide is not a sin in a bible. In fact its not even mentioned in the Chumash. If you remember Saul committed suicide so as to not be tortured by his captures. I'm not condoning suicide but i certainly support assited medical suicide for the terminally ill. I'm not a piece of meat. I'm a human.

Kevorkian is an example of someone who has betrayed his mission as a doctor, which is to heal and help ease pain, not end the human who has the misfortune of being ill or in pain. When someone asks to be terminated, it should be the kindness of a caring doctor or relative, realizing the poor choice being made, who tries to find a way to alleviate the distress that triggered the poor choice,rather than agree toend the life of the human who has arrived at the decision.
If we follow the Torah, we know that every life has value. We would seek better pain relief or solutions to depression, rather than stoop to becoming an executioner of innocent but ill patients, which is how I view Kevorkian. I will not add the Dr. in front of his name, as he is not one.

It is bigots like you who demonstrate how much someone like Dr. Death is needed.

You see, Rabbi, you have been blessed by never having been afflicted with intractable pain. Do you know what it like to never have a millisecond of relief from agony? I do. I live with polyneuropathy and spinal stenosis, not to mention a few other disabilities.

Polyneuropathy, when it is bad enough, means no walking. If you do not have a wheelchair, you spend virtually 100% of your life in bed. Polyneuropathy makes walking across a crumb feel like a huge clump of sharp knives. At other times, it makes you feel as though your feet are on fire. I am not exaggerating, ask any sufferer of this debilitating disease. It is as though some sadist is running a propane torch across your feet. Even moving air is more than enough to make one scream in agony.

After hading my doctor a death certificate with "suicide" as the cause of death, did he finally prescribe a pain patch that is 80 times more potent than morphine. It helps, but that is all it does, it makes it possible to live with it.

I also have spinal stenosis. The pain is constant and as the day goes on the pain moves from my back to my hips to my thighs. I wake up my family every night screaming in agony. Make that SCREAMING in agony. I will take the pain for awhile longer and then I plan to do something permanent to cease my pain.

Mind you, I don't want to die. I have no wish to abandon my loved ones. So I'll ask you, what should I do? Pray? I've done that. God just plays with me like a cat with a mouse.

Get drunk? Unfortunately I don't drink.

I can't even get spiritual help because I can't sit still long enough to make it through a service. I'm exhausted as I write these words because pain sucks energy the way a sponge sucks up water. I cannot afford the kind of wheelchair that would allow me to sit in a position that would minimize pain.
Since there is no medicine that can even turn the level of pain down, what should I do? So you think that Dr. Death should have stayed in prison when he shouldn't been there at all. What is YOUR answer.
Beverly Kurtin; Hurst, TX

One is not allowed to murder, including oneself. Suicide is a permanent solution to which is most often a temporary problem. Most terminally ill patients would give everything to live longer. G-d gave us our bodies and only He can take them back.

We all have choices on whether we can anticipate living or dying. G-d gives us all our free will, and it is a challenge to some or many of us if we want to choose life over death or vice-versa. This is a splitting issue, like that on abortion, where some would argue that it is taking the life of a pre-born baby, or it is simply a fetus in the womb, depending on how its differentiated by one's view to the other...All in all it all boils down to the choices we make on how we go about to live or discontinue life. As one Rabbi said, "free will is the most profound gift that G-d has given us". It's a matter of using free will wisely that determines the continuity of life.