Israelis to be allowed euthanasia by machine
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem | 08/12/2005Machines will perform euthanasia on terminally ill patients in Israel under legislation devised not to offend Jewish law, which forbids people taking human life.
A special timer will be fitted to a patient's respirator which will sound an alarm 12 hours before turning it off.
Normally, carers would override the alarm and keep the respirator turned on but, if various stringent conditions are met, including the giving of consent by the patient or legal guardian, the alarm would not be overridden.
Similar timing devices, known as Sabbath clocks, are used in the homes of orthodox Jews so that light switches and electrical devices can be turned on during the Sabbath without offending religious strictures.
Parliamentarians reached a solution after discussions with a 58-member panel of medical, religious and philosophical experts.
"The point was that it is wrong, under Jewish law, for a person's life to be taken by a person but, for a machine, it is acceptable," a parliamentary spokesman said.
"A man would not be able to shorten human life but a machine can."
The bill, which was approved at the third and final reading in the Knesset by 22 votes to three with one abstention, will become law next year.
Danny Naveh, the health minister, described the passing of the law as a historic moment, saying: "This is one of the most important laws passed by the Knesset. It represents major moral value for the terminally ill and their families."
It is expected that elderly Israelis will begin to leave "living wills" in which they stipulate whether they would allow the new euthanasia procedure to apply to them if they were to end up in hospital, dependent on a respirator and suffering from a terminal disease.
Comment by webservant of Jesus-is-Savior.com...
This type of evil is right around the corner for America as well. What our government did to Terri Schiavo was evil to the core. Her family wanted to care for her, yet her monstrous husband and evil government wanted her dead! So they decided to starve and dehydrate her to death, a fate which NO criminal has ever been sentenced to in America. Euthanasia is wicked! It is murder! Only God gives life and we certainly have no right to take it. I predict the day when perfectly healthy young people will step into such death machines to end their life. It is just an expansion of the murderous abortion industry, and a further attempt to reduce the overall population. Life is sacred. The more that mankind tampers with life, the less he respects it. The end result will be disastrous. These evil inventions are only the beginning of the godless things to come.