[Avodah] assisted suicide

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Joel Rich,in response to posts from R"n Toby Katz, wrote:
> ... we know in certain circumstances one can pray for one
> or another's death - why isn't this called hastening? ...
> In fact couldn't one argue that the prayer to the creator
> is more effective and thus more of a life shortner?

When one prays for a death, he is merely expressing his desires, and making a request, to Hashem. But it is Hashem Who will make the decision and carry it out. In contrast, when one does an act, he is essentially forcing Hashem's hand, because Hashem's only choices will be between having the person die, or doing a miracle of some sort.

(There do seem to be some cases where Hashem chooses to keep the person alive, despite the actions of others. I suspect that Karen Ann Quinlan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Ann_Quinlan) might be a good example of this. But because of "ain somchin al hanes", those cases are irrelevant to this discussion.)

Thus, I do not see that praying for someone's death could be considered as murder or any sort of derivative of it, because one is not DOING anything at all. Contrary to what RJR wrote, prayer is much *less* effective than taking a knife and doing something with it.

In the case of praying for someone else's death, it seems to me that the worst he might be guilty of, is praying for a bad thing. Of course, the individual sees the situation and considers the death to be a good thing, or at least not as bad as the continued life. It is quite possible that he is wrong, but I'd hope that his prayer would include the usual "l'tovah" caveats, that Hashem should fulfill the prayer only if it is indeed for the best.

In the case of a person praying for his own death, it seems to me that there could be an additional problem, that of being ungrateful for possible future good things, however small they might be. That's only my opinion, however, and I admit that the halacha does recognize that a person's life could be so difficult that he is justified in asking for it to end.

That might answer R' Michael Makovi's question:
> Indeed, Rabbi Akiva refused to hasten his death and avoid
> the pain of being burnt alive. Apparently pain is not enough?

No, just because he refused to hasten his death, that does not prove that it was forbidden to hasten his death. It is possible that he was allowed, but chose not to. It is possible that despite an incredible amount of pain, a person's desire to live might be even yet stronger.

To change the topic slightly, I would suggest that there is a middle level between a regular death (a clear maaseh) and merely praying for a death (which is not a maaseh at all). And that is the case of "removing an impediment". Rama YD 339:1 explains that this is not a maaseh at all, but (it seems to me) it does "force Hashem's hand" (as I wrote above in the firsst paragraph) and it bothers me very much that we should be allowed to do that. I concede that it may not meet the *technical* definition of a maaseh, but it sure *looks* like one, and it bothers me that we are "relying" on such technicalities to "allow" a person to die.

Akiva Miller
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