DETROIT
Rabbis Troubled By Implications
Of Kevorkian 'Suicide Machine'
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Assistant Editor
I
n Marjorie Norman's fav-
orite film, a young
Japanese woman an-
ticipates climbing to the top
of a mountain where she will
help her elderly mother end
her life.
Norman likes the film be-
cause it shows that suicide is
not a cowardly gesture or an
evil act, but rather a deci-
sion one makes after much
reflection, when he decides
his life is no longer one of
quality.
"There comes a time when
your usefulness is over,"
says Norman, who helped
found the Michigan chapter
of the Hemlock Society, a
national organization that
provides suicide information
to the infirm.
As a supporter of the right
to choose suicide, Norman,
who was raised in a Jewish
home but is not religious, is
pleased the issue is gaining
attention following the rev-
elation that a Michigan doc-
tor helped a woman kill
herself with a "suicide
machine."
Jewish leaders disagree
strongly with Norman's
view of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's
device, which allows users to
end their lives with an injec-
tion of potassium chloride.
The suicide machine is in
direct contradiction to
Halachah, Jewish law, said
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg of
Young Israel of Southfield.
Halachah clearly states that
"life and death issues are in
the hands of God," and for
someone to end a life — in-
cluding his own — is "a
grievous crime."
Dr. Kevorkian, a retired
Royal Oak pathologist, came
under fire last month after
he helped a 54-year-old
woman end her life in the
back of his Volkswagen van.
Janet Adkins of Oregon, who
was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease, pressed
a button on the suicide
machine, first introducing a
saline solution to open her
veins, then inducing a coma
with an injection of pen-
tothal, and finally stopping
her heart with an injection
of potassium chloride.
Death occurs within six
minutes after the potassium
chloride has entered the
body.
Dr. Kevorkian, 62, said he
created the machine because
he could not bear to see the
terminally ill suffer. He said
he was inspired by David
Rivlin, a quadriplegic from
Farmington who died last
year after a long fight to
remove the respirator keep-
ing him alive.
The Michigan health ser-
vices bureau is now in-
vestigating Kevorkian, who
could face discipline from
the state medical board or
could lose the license allow-
ing him to practice medicine.
Gil Townsend builds a classroom wall for the Sally Allan Alexander
Beth Jacob School for Girls in the former sanctuary of Congregation
B'nai Moshe in Oak Park. The school will begin occupying the building
within the next year.
Photo by Glenn Triest
Although Dr. Kevorkian
did not actually end Adkins'
life, his decision to help her
commit suicide is not accep-
table under Halachah,
which forbids one to support
another in an inappropriate
act, Rabbi Goldberg said.
Rabbi Goldberg also noted
that Adkins, while diag-
nosed with Alzheimers, was
not terminally ill and had
shown few symptoms of the
disease.
"Treatment for Alz-
heimer's disease could
turn up tomorrow, and she
could have been cured," he
said.
Earlier this month Jewish
groups lauded the Supreme
Court decision allowing
states to prevent families of
comatose patients from
removing life-sustaining
equipment.
The decision followed a re-
quest by the parents of 32-
year-old Nancy Cruzan of
Missouri to remove the
feeding tubes keeping their
daughter alive. Cruzan had
been in a vegetative state
since she was injured in a
1983 automobile accident.
The Agudath Israel of
America filed a brief in sup-
port of the state of Missouri,
which fought to stop the
Cruzans, and is now con-
sidering circulating a docu-
ment allowing Jews to en-
sure that, if incapacitated,
treatment would be accep-
table under Halachah.
In some cases, Halachah
might permit the
withholding of medical
treatment from one with a
fatal or debilitating disease,
said Rabbi Joel Roth, chair-
man of the Rabbinic
Assembly's Committee for
Jewish Law and Standards
and a Talmud professor at
the Jewish Theological
Seminary "But that's very
different than active par-
ticipation in hastening a
death.
"There is no Halachic
justification whatsoever for
use of Dr. Kevorkian's
machine," Rabbi Roth said.
Rabbi Roth said the
implications of Dr.
Kevorkian's device are
frightening Those plagued
by financial and emotional
woes might encourage ailing
family members to use a
suicide machine.
"What if a child said to his
mother, 'Listen, couldn't you
do what she (Adkins) did?
It's really hard on us and it's
costing a lot of money.' That
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would be a terrible guilt trip
for the people who need least
of all to be guilt-tripped."
Detroit general surgeon
Dr. Murray Kling, who re-
cently attended the first
international seminar on
Jewish medical ethics, spon-
sored by the Orthodox Heb-
rew Academy of San Fran-
cisco, also is disturbed by
implications of allowing the
infirm to end their lives.
Adkins opted for the
machine because she feared
Alzheimers debilitating
effects, including memory
loss, hallucinations and
depression, would cause her
to become a burden to her
family.
"And what about the next
case? Maybe the patient
won't be quite as sick," Dr.
Kling said. "We call it a
slippery slope because its
difficult to draw the line and
decide where to end it."
Last week a Philadelphia
physician killed himself and
his family with a device
similar to the Kevorkian
suicide machine. Dr. An-
thony Paul, 50, said he could
not continue to live in the
face of his wife's multiple
sclerosis and his daughter's
autism.
"We've become too casual
about the sanctity of life,"
Dr. Kling said. "Just be-
cause a person can't function
doesn't mean we end his
life." Instead, society must
learn to be more compas-
sionate and supportive of the
aged and infirm, he said.
Temple Kol Ami's Rabbi
Norman Roman spent time
with David Rivlin before
Rivlin, a quadriplegic, died
last year when his life-
support system was remov-
ed.
Rabbi Roman said Rivlin
was concerned that he had
become a burden to the
state, which was paying for
much of his care. Rivlin
would have preferred the
money be used to feed the
homeless.
"I can understand that Dr.
Kevorkian said he was ac-
ting out of compassion,"
Rabbi Roman said. "But ac-
cording to Jewish law what
he was doing was wrong.
Was it morally wrong — I
don't know. That's a big
question." ❑
Yad Ezra Seeks Help
Feeding Jewish Hungry
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
T
he shelves at Yad
Ezra, Detroit's kosher
food pantry, look a
little bare this month.
Normally, jars of peanut
butter fill a portion of the
pantry shelves, but the supp-
ly is getting low. Cereal,
vegetable oil, canned fruit —
all pantry stables — aren't
even in stock at the
Southfield pantry.
Although it is the end of
July, "we haven't gone
shopping this month," ex-
plains Jeanette Eizelman,
Yad Ezra's executive direc-
tor. "We've had an order
ready to go out since June
28, but we haven't had
enough money to pay for it."
The shelves will soon be
full again now that dona-
tions have started coming in,
including an $11,000 check
from the Max M. Fisher Jew-
ish Community Foundation,
said Gary Dembs, one of the
pantry's organizers. But six
months after opening its
doors to the Jewish hungry,
Yad Ezra is struggling to
raise money to keep the food
supply from running out.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 15