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OPINION
Communal Problem
Continued from Page 7
Professor Kelman and those
who decided to give promi-
nent news coverage to the
outrageous statements of a
heretofore unknown person
would have us believe that
LeGrand Clegg represents
the NAACP and the entire
African American communi-
ty. The newspaper "teased"
the reader with a page one
preview headline, "Jews ac-
cused of bias," and followed
this with the article's
headline, "Blacks: Jews held
back our actors."
There are clearly important
issues that strain in the rela-
tionship between our two
communities here in Detroit
and elsewhere. There are also
critical agenda items that re-
quire our joint action, e.g., the
rise of skinheads and other
bigoted groups, civil rights
legislation, and urban issues.
These matters can only be
addressed in an atmosphere
of honesty and camarderie,
not one of bitterness and
scapegoating. The Jewish
Community Council and
other local Jewish organiza-
tions have developed
beneficial partnerships with
the Detroit African American
community. Our work is
never done; let's not be
sidetracked by those like Mr.
Clegg whose only aim is to
drive a wedge between our
two communities. ❑
mm"••••''''''l COMMENT
Right To Die
Continued from Page 6
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12
FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1990
California legislature con-
sidered a physician-assisted
suicide proposal, I sug-
gested, in a lecture at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
in Los Angeles, that the
following scenario could
become routine: The son
says to his father, "Dad,
Uncle Ted didn't put us
through this ordeal. Why
don't you be a good dad and
do what he did?" The father
unclenches his fists, gives up
the fight and the right to
live, and the children are
guilty of murder. In other
words, how do we keep the
right to die from becoming
the duty to die?
Prof. Leon Kass makes a
similar point in his book,
Toward a More Natural
Science: "For the choice for
death is not one option
among many, but an option
to end all options. Socially,
there will be great pressure
on the aged and the
vulnerable to exercise this
option." Last March, he
argued further that once
there looms the legal alter-
native of euthanasia, it will
plague every decision made
by any seriously ill elderly
person — not to speak of
their more powerful
caretakers — even without
the subtle hints and
pressures applied to them by
others.
Before we indeed approach
the question of euthanasia,
there is a vital lesson to be
learned from the discussion.
The saddest part of the
Kevorkian case is Janet
Adkins' suicide note,
reprinted on the front page
of The New York Times. She
wrote that the threat of
worsening Alzheimer's
disease made her fear being
a burden to family. This
should not be. People with
severe and with much lesser
afflictions, who have "paid
their dues" and deserve our
nurture and care, are made
to feel a burden — which is
an indictment of the rest of
us.
At a recent meeting of the
Bikkur Cholim Committee
of our synagogue, the
Teaneck Jewish Center, I
made the point that visits to
the sick serve many vital
purposes. Among the pur-
poses of the mitzvah is to
assure proud people who
have now been rendered
dependent that they share
our right to life and the
return of our respectful car-
ing.
For us, even the patient's
expressed wishes cannot
make murder of self per-
missible. There is much that
one might communicate,
directly, through a surrogate
or in a living will. He or she
does have "autonomy" to
refuse treatment that might
bring more harm than
benefit. Thus, there is the
right to choose unaggressive
hospice care or even "do not
resuscitate" when medical
intervention can be as harm-
ful as not. But a willful
foreshortening of life be-
cause of diminished quality
is a sacrilege for the in-
dividual and a rebuke to the
society. ❑
Rabbi David Feldman is
spiritual leader of the
Teaneck, N.J., Jewish Center.
This article first appeared in
the Hackensack, N.J.,
Vewish Register"