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Q&A: Preventing Life Extension Because of Future Suffering

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Preventing Life Extension Because of Future Suffering

Question

I wanted to ask what your opinion is.
Suppose there is a woman living with mild pain, but it is known that in another week she will be in a state of reduced consciousness and perhaps with severe pain, and she is aware of her end and says that they should not try to prolong her life.
Now she has started to deteriorate, but in practice it will only take another week until her body reaches the severe condition, and meanwhile, for the coming week, it would be easy to save her life so that she would live only with the mild pains she is already used to, by means of ventilators (not on its own). Is there any point in prolonging her life for the coming week even though she does not want it?
I simply heard about a similar case, from a family that refrained from treating her in accordance with the elderly woman's wishes. But that sounds very puzzling to me, because at most she would wait for that same week and that's it… Though maybe then one could distinguish, since after they begin treatment it would count as an active act of disconnecting and so on, but in the end, even withholding treatment when it is easy to treat can also be called that. (The Holy One, blessed be He, punishes not only according to the formal boundaries of Jewish law, as in the sin of David.)
 

Answer

I'm not sure I understood the question. It is forbidden to disconnect someone from machines, meaning to cause death, but there is no obligation to prolong life. If the person does not want it, there is no need to prolong it. One can try to persuade her of the value of life, and if she wants, they can prolong it.

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