The Israeli government, taking the stance that it is wrong for a person to take a life but not a machine, is allowing euthanasia by machine.
Machines 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.
Machines do not act on their own, they are put in motion by people. That a person is not killing another person is a legal fiction. After all, could not the Nazis have claimed that it was the gas chambers that killed the Jews in the Holocaust not them?
For a nation founded on the motto, “Never forget,” it is sad to see what they have forgotten. I weep for my grandfather’s people and for all of us.
