[Avodah] assisted suicide

[Rich, Joel]

I wrote:
> 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.

R' Joel Rich asked:
> Any more "miraculous" then someone dieing earlier than he should have 
> due to prayer?  What if the physician set a machine in motion that had

> a 50/50 chance of killing the patient and said now it's up to Hashem?

I don't understand that question. A person's death is *always* in
Hashem's ability. If the physician sets up a 50/50 machine, that doesn't
really change much at all (except our ability to call the physician
"reckless"). My point is that when a person does a real act (like
turning off a respirator, or some violence with a weapon) that pretty
much *forces* Hashem to have the person die.

Akiva Miller
==================================================
My point was that forcing hashem's hand is a relative statement-prayer
may be as much a force as increasing the probability in other ways (e.g.
a gun can always misfire and people won't say it's a nes)
KT
Joel Rich

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