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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Gershon Seif <A
href="mailto:gershonseif@yahoo.com">gershonseif@yahoo.com</A><BR><BR>>>My
wife (who is a lobbyist for Agudah) was in Madison, WI yesterday to join a long
list of people/organizations who came to voice their objection to a proposed
bill to allow physician assisted suicide.<BR><BR>Some of the people who spoke in
favor of the bill tried to show how Shimshon would have been in favor of
assisted suicide....<BR><BR>What are the basic chilukim between Shimshon's
situation and a person suffering from a teminal illness, that would allow him to
do what he did, and yet forbid assisted suicide? </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>My first hunch is that by Shimshon it was only a grama. And it might even
be a safek, whereas what the assisted suicide wants to allow would be a vadai
and quite direct.<<<BR><BR></DIV></FONT><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>A talmid chacham of my acquaintance told me (when I asked) that the
people who jumped out of the World Trade Center rather than be burned to death
were not committing suicide or doing anything wrong -- that at the point of
death, if you have a choice, you're allowed to choose. Say a killer gave
his victim a choice of death by gun or by bow and arrow -- the victim would be
allowed to choose. It may be that Shimshon was that close to death and chose to
die in a way that would bring down the Plishtim with him.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>In the case of a person suffering from a terminal illness, the person who
opts for suicide is not just choosing one of two alternative deaths, he is
actually hastening his death. </FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>In the case of Shimshon, your thought that it was only grama is actually
a strong case, and here is an aspect that makes it even stronger: his
"suicide" depended completely on a nes occurring, he had no way bederech hateva
to kill himself or to kill the Plishtim. What he did might better be
compared to a person praying for death, which I think all would agree is
mutar. If Hashem Himself steps in, then the person's death is literally an
Act of G-d -- which is what Shimshon's death was.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>The reality is that physicians do actually often help people die but this
is never official. It will always go on but should not be codified in
law because it makes it too official, almost as if the government is actually
encouraging people to hasten their end. In Holland many people who are
"assisted" this way do not actually want to die and are not even close to
death, but have been persuaded by others. There have even been cases
where patients specifically said they did not want to die but doctors signed at
the heirs' request that the patient "really" wanted to die. Pain
killers and anti-depressants would be much better for them and would obviate
many "requests" to die -- but the extra months or years in nursing homes would
be very expensive for the govt and/or the heirs.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Anyway, bottom line, there is a huge difference between a person
saying, "Please release me from my suffering, take my soul now" to a
physician -- and saying that same thing to his Creator.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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