Al Yarinski pointed me to this BMJ piece from tomorrow’s issue, entitled “Israeli’s turn to timer device to facilitate passive euthanasia.” Here’s the idea:
A response delayed by a timer attached to a patient’s ventilator will solve the Israeli government’s wish to introduce passive euthanasia for terminally ill people and to allow them to die with dignity…
The timer, based on the idea of the Sabbath clock, used in religious Jewish homes to turn electrical devices on and off on Saturday, would operate for 24 hours at a time and set off a red light or alarm after 12. The patient or their representative could at any time request an extension. But if the dying person were determined not to have their life extended, the timer would turn off the ventilator at the end of the cycle.
This is clearly an idea that could only have come from a committee, and it did, made up of 58 people from a variety of specializations. The point being of course that it could never have come from research into how people in hospitals – wherever they may be born and however they feel about the Sabbath clock – perceive medical technology. Did anyone try this out on a sample of patients? Isn’t there plenty of reason to fear that this somewhat arbitrary “moment” will be perceived as “active” euthanasia – and worse yet euthanasia by robot?
The law also does some useful and long overdue things, including creating statutory hospital ethics committees in Isreal as well as a national database of living wills.