The Bilateral Commission of the Delegations of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews have issued a joint statement, “Jewish and Catholic Approaches to the terminally ill: The Prohibited, the Permitted and the Obligatory.”
Echoing a 2006 joint statement, the signatories said that “we repudiate the concept of active euthanasia (so-called mercy killing) and physician-assisted suicide, as the illegitimate human arrogation of an exclusive Divine authority to determine the time of a person’s death.”
“For both Jews and Christians, taking care of the terminally ill with belief, respect and love means truly to light the lamp of faith and hope at a time shrouded in darkness and a sense of solitude and abandonment for both patient and dear ones,” the signatories added.