Igros Moshe (Choshen Mishpat II #75.1) Question Concerning someone with cancer which is viewed as incurable and treatment will at best prolong his life for a few months is there an obligation to treat him to prolong his life for a short time during which he is in terrible pain? Answer The patient should be informed about this and asked if he wants to undergo treatment and live a life of suffering rather than die. If he wants he should be given the treatment. However if he doesn’t want a life of suffering he should not be given the treatment. However if he wants to prolong his life to enable him to be seen by a greater doctor or even if it is not a greater doctor but he wants to consult that doctor than he should be treated.
Igros Moshe (Choshen Mishpat II #75.2) Question: What is considered temporary cure (chaye shaah). The importance of defining this is that if the doctor has two patients who have other treatable problems. Preference should be given to the patient who can live more than another year and thus hasn’t lost the presumption of life otherwise he is classified as a treifah. However once a patient is evaluated to be able to live for more than two years there is no difference to one who can be cured. The mere opinion of doctors that a person can’t live does not determine his status. In addition a doctor should give priority to the patient that consulted him first as well as the one who is closer to his home. He if doesn’t know than he should he should make a lottery.
I was recently at a Jewish medical conferences and one of the talks was on this subject. Naturally the rabbi with the long beard and peyos talked about prolonging life no matter what, no matter how much the suffering, that this was Daas Torah, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd one thing struck me about his speech. He talked about the doctors and their prognoses, the family and their wishes but not once did he say "And I spoke with the patient". It was almost like the patient himself was irrelevant.
To GI -- was that the conference in Stamford CT sponsored by an extremist charedi medical center that makes money by keeping patients under care. The longer the care, the greater the income.
DeleteHaving said that, I tend to agree that doctors are gung-ho on ending life for a gosses.