A Gentle Goodbye
At Life's End

PHIL JACOBS ED TOR

7—

0

n so many mornings, metro
Detroiters awaken to hear
the news of yet another as-
sisted suicide. Typically the
person was suffering greatly from
an incurable disease or condition.
At 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 12,
a panel discussion at Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek's B'nai Israel
Center in West Bloomfield will
explore alternatives to assisted
suicide.
"A Gentle Goodbye ... Explor-
ing Alternatives to Assisted Sui-
cide" will feature Shaarey Zedek
Rabbi Irwin Groner; Rabbi Bun-
ny Freedman, director of Jewish
Hospice Services; Dr. John Finn,
medical director of Hospice of
Michigan; Andrew J. Broder, an
attorney specializing in eldercare;
and Cheryl Weiss, whose family
recently experienced hospice care.
David Techner of Ira Kaufman
Chapel, nationally recognized for
his work on the Jewish response
to death, will moderate the pan-
el. The event is free and open to
the public.

For Sally Krugel, who is chair-
ing the event with Anita Naftaly,
Shaarey Zedek's goal is to "de-
velop ways of helping people en-
joy their Jewishness."
Sometimes, she said, "life-cy-
cle events aren't always simchas.
Sometimes it's tough."
Mr. Techner knows about the
"tough" issues. Yet, he feels it is
critical for all Jews to come away
with a better understanding of
end-of-life issues.
"If you take [Dr. Jack]
Kevorkian out of the equation for
a minute, these issues still exist.
It's there. This is probably one of
the strongest topics out there. But
it's got greater significance here,
because we are in Kevorkian's
back yard. And the Kevorkian is-
sue really destroys the real pas-
sion of the argument.
"I want our discussion at
Shaarey Zedek to focus on what
Judaism believes we should do in
situations of end-of-life.
"Assisted suicide?" he asked.
"Anyone can figure out it's against

Jewish tradition. What happens
is, we get muddied with the
Kevorkian side of an issue and we
don't tackle what Jewish tradi-
tion says we should do.
"What we'll discuss at Shaarey
Zedek is what we should be doing
so that when the end comes,
everyone feels good from a per-
sonal standpoint and from a Jew-
ish standpoint.
"I can tell you I've dealt with
Kevorkian deaths. They talk
about death with dignity. To me,
death with dignity does not come
with a press conference. Death
with dignity is about honoring life.
There is a way you can tradition-
ally respond without calling Jack."
For Rabbi Freedman, the issue
comes down to compassion and
pain control. At the event, he'll
tell the audience that 98 percent
of the cases where physician-as-
sisted suicides are requested, once
the pain is under control, the pa-
tient usually no longer requests
suicide.
"We believe that the alterna-
tive is good, compassionate end-
of-life care like Hospice provides,"
he said. "The human instinct is
not to die. Death is a very lonely
experience and the great un-
known. It's not natural for people
to want to die. We believe that
they're not saying, 'I want to die.'
They're saying, 'End my pain.' "0

Sally Krugel: A tough issue.

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