Israel passed a law allowing the terminally ill to cut off life support. The bill, which was held up by years of debate between religious legislators, was approved by the Knesset on Tuesday by a vote of 22-3, with one abstention. Under the new law, patients deemed to have six months or less to live can opt to have a special timer installed on their life-support systems, whose countdown system can be continually extended — or not. Ethicists noted that since the mechanism gives the patient the option of not resuming life-support, it’s different from active euthanasia and therefore consistent with Jewish morality. Health Minister Danny Naveh called the bill “one of the most complicated and important ever legislated by the Knesset.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
