Posted on 03/23/2005 10:53:56 AM PST by nickcarraway
We enjoyed the theological discussion between Rabbi Marc Gellman, the Jewish half of "The God Squad," and CNN's Aaron Brown Tuesday night.
Gellman makes clear that no authority has the right to end someone's life, and certainly no one has the right to stop someone's life by starving them to death or depriving them of water.
Here's the exchange:
<>Brown: I guess I'm looking for a road map here. What does it mean in this day and age to be alive?
Gellman: What it means is that you have an elemental right to stay alive. If you are innocent, if you are alive, even if you're mute, there's just a common moral consensus that you should not be starved to death, or you should not have to die of thirst.
It's true for infants, who can't feed themselves. It's true for people in comas. And it's true for brain-damaged people. In a certain way, what's amazing about this case, Aaron, is that it doesn't come down to, what do the religious people believe and what do the nonreligious people believe? I think there's a general consensus that you have a conflict here between the rights of a husband to be the next of kin and the rights of an innocent, mute and living person to continue to live.
Brown: I'm not precisely sure – and we've argued before, and perhaps we will again – that you answered my question what it means to be alive, except to say that it means to be alive, that any life is alive. So we'll leave it at that.
Gellman: No, it means that you have a right not to be – to have someone end your life. That's the most elemental thing it means.
Brown: OK. OK.
Let's assume for a second, Marc, that she, in fact – because I have no factual reason to believe she did not – she, in fact, said to her husband, I don't want to live that way or this way, if this should ever come to that in my life. Does that matter in a theological sense about whether society should condone the ending of a life?
Brown: That's a great question.
And I think it's one of the things that's complicated people's thinking about it, Aaron. In a theological sense, it doesn't matter, because the theological construct is that what matters is, what is the right thing to do? What matters in a legal context, and for people who think about personal autonomy, is, who has the right to make the decision, whatever the decision is?
From a theological point of view, you have no right to end your own life and you have no right to end the life of someone else.
Brown: OK. All right. And, just in this sequence, then, Marc, the final question, then: Under no circumstance in the theological view, or in your theological view, do I have the right, in the way that people in the state of Oregon, for example, have the right, a terminally ill person, to end their life prematurely simply because I decide the quality of my life or the pain I'm enduring is more than I choose to bear?
Gellman: Right.
But there is a gray here. You do have a right to eliminate an obstacle to death. If you are on medical machinery that is not therapeutic and has no purpose other than to prevent you from dying, other than machinery to feed you and provide hydration, other than that, you have a right to end that medical intervention and reach a peaceful and natural death.
Brown: But I don't have the right, even though I may be – I do not have the right, even though I may be in great pain, that I may be terminal within three, four, five, six months, I do not have the right, in a theological sense, to hasten the end of my life, take some pills and die?
Gellman: Right, because the concept is that your life is not a privilege. It's a gift that you didn't give and you cannot take. It's a fundamentally different point of view than people who believe we own our own bodies and we have absolute personal autonomy.
ping
"no authority has the right to end someone's life?"
and where does the good Rabbi stand on abortion? hmmmmm
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
ProLife Ping!
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America has been delivered into the hands of Godless men - the ACLU, the hypocritical Courts and the insidious attorney's Cabal which controls them and the legislatures.
If the Courts can order the killing of Terri Schiavo, its a short way towards ordering the killing of autistic people, Down's Syndrome people, and others who are considered "expendible" elements of the new sociliast order in America.
I was pleasantly surprised, since Rabbi Gellman has always struck me as superficially a liberal type, what with the blow-dried hair and the bow-tie. And of course no yarmulke or beard. But then, there are some conservative Jews who skip the yarmulke and beard too.
You know who else believes it's right to save Terri's life?
- Jesse Jackson
- David Boies
- a majority of the Congressional Black Caucus
- the overwhelming majority of Europeans
That last bit of information I heard last night on the "John Batchelor Show," from one of Batchelor's British correspondents. The man said that Europeans are intensely interested in the Schiavo case, and side with Terri's parents.
(Hey, maybe since our Supreme Court is so in love with European opinions, we should let them know. Maybe SCOTUS will take a new look at the case on that basis alone.)
Creator God,
We implore You to intervene to save the physical life of Your daughter Terri, and to force back the powers of evil that threaten to overtake her and the State of Florida and the Courts of that state and the Courts of that Federal District. We beg of You do not let the forces of evil prevail and scar our nation in this way. In the name of Your Son, Jesus who died on the cross so that we might walk with You each moment of each day we pray. Amen.
Rabbi Gellman is against abortion even though he's a Reform rabbi.
thanks for the info
I use to enjoy listening to him and the priest(forget his name) on the radio
The priest is Monsignor Tom Hartman. I've heard the God Squad criticize secularism and note that secularists murdered more people than those who acted in the name of religion.
Thanks, I know his face when I see it but I couldn't think of his name. I miss listening to them on the radio.
Starvation is immoral, which is why if you are going to let someone die, give em a good shot of morphine to send them on their way to heaven painlessly......I think God will understand and welcome Terry S regardless.....
I read somewhere that she is on morphine and valium - I dont understand why. Maybe someone can confirm this.
If she is it's news to me, I hope it's true. I hope she's gets rescued soon.
Good news to have the Rabbi weighing in on this!
BTW....what is different about jewish law than Christian Law?
Another thing has upset me. Someone has ILL-ADVISED the Jewish Democrats to be the point people fo the Pro-death of Terri side. Wexner, wasserman, Nadler, Weiner, Wyden, Franken, etc. Out of ALL the people in this country, Jewish people should be the biggest PRO-LIFE group....and to rally round the starvation of an innocent person makes me and my Jewish husband sick.
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