Steven Resnicoff

Jewish Law Perspectives on Suicide and Physician-Assisted Dying

Jewish law perceives life as a process through which a person purifies himself or herself in preparation for the ultimate spiritual experience in the World to Come. A person accomplishes this goal by abiding by and fulfilling Gods commandments. These commandments require, among other things, that a person treat life not merely as an opportunity or right, but rather as a profound responsibility. Not only is a person prohibited from rejecting this duty by committing suicide, but he is affirmatively directed to safeguard his life. Judaism also posits a fundamental a collective responsibility for all members of the religious community to promote God’s Will. Consequently, Jews may not enable or encourage others to take their own lives.Nevertheless, there is significant support among Jewish law authorities for permitting suicide in cases in which it would be perceived as sanctifying God’s name. In addition, some authorities believe that a patient who faces imminent death and is suffering from unrelenting pain may choose not to accept further medical treatment.This paper identifies and examines the fundamental doctrinal bases for these rules and their exceptions. In so doing, it provides the conceptual framework for a plethora of Jewish bioethical dilemmas.

J. David Bleich: An Intellectual Portrait

J. David Bleich is an extraordinary interdisciplinary scholar who has made enormously significant theoretical and practical contributions to a variety of fields. He would undoubtedly describe himself primarily as a halakhist, a master of Jewish law, and he displays this expertise in a plethora of powerful, probing, panoptic analyses of diverse topics. Indeed, he is responsible for innovating a new genre of academic literature: truly outstanding Jewish law scholarship produced in the English language. Nevertheless, his training in philosophy coupled with his ardent commitment to traditional Jewish values have enabled him to address public policies concerns – particularly those involving family law and bioethics – in ways that resonate far beyond the Jewish community. In a tome devoted to Bleich role as one of the great Jewish philosophers of the twentieth century, this essay undertakes two tasks. First, it identifies the principal influences that have informed Bleich’s intellectual development. Second, it describes many of his fundamental philosophical perspectives and explains the roles they have played, and the ways in which they have been expressed, in his rich scholarly contributions.