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Ask JTF For February 10 Broadcast

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Lisa:
I'm posting this on behalf of Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim.

Thank you for answering my question about white South Africa and Rhodesia. Were they moral countries or immoral countries? And what specific ways were they unique from other white Anglo countries other than being surrounded by blacks?

Lubab:
Hi Chaim,

A question came up about suicide in last week's AskJTF.

If I understood you correctly, you said you believe that suicide is justified by a terminally ill person who is in great pain and has very little chance of survival.

This seemed to me like a mistake on your part so I checked and indeed the unanimous Torah position is that one may not do anything PROACTIVE (like suicide by the patient, or homocide by the doctor) to end the life of a terminally ill person.

This is not to be confused with the obligation or non-obligation to prolong the life as long as possible. That is a more complicated issue.

But it should be made clear that nobody can take a proactive step to actually end the life sooner than G-d decrees and doing so even a moment too soon constitutes murder. Killing someone who is in a vegetative state constitutes murder in halacha and I think this should be made clear.

If you agree with what I'm saying can we please correct the record here so the Torah view is not misrepresented?
If you disagree I'm happy to hear your response and we can discuss this further next week.

Thanks in advance.

Kol Tuv

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