Don’t kill people

Thanks to my friend for posting this on the Facebook (under the above title).

It is a well known fact that modern doctors are all too quick to declare a person in coma or brain dead, or in general urge family members to sign a DNR (“do not resuscitate”) form. My mother was recently asked if she wants to sign such a form about an elderly member of our family who was not doing well and was seemingly not responsive and unconscious. My mother refused of course (it’s a good thing the question was asked over a telephone, not in person), and the next day, the person became conscious, was smiling, etc.

Even if the person in the article above was not conscious — indeed, if his cortex was really destroyed making future consciousness truly impossible — it would still be against Torah law to kill him. What makes somebody alive is not consciousness but presence of the soul in the body (as determined by the “signs” provided by Halacha). And even if the soul has no expression through the body or the mind, as long as Hashem keeps it in this world, even in a terrible state, it is done for a purpose.

How much more so about the borderline cases like this. Just like with death penalty, as long we are not sure (considering that again and again we see cases of somebody being found innocent, or, in the case of medicine, becoming or being discovered conscious after having been declared in coma or brain dead), we cannot take a chance of murdering people.

On the other hand, of course, there are examples in Gemara not of terminating somebody’s life because of suffering, but not continuing the support. There are many places online and offline where this topic is discussed in detail. For example (an audio-shiur).