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1. Is a non Jewish physician allowed to put to death a terminally ill,
non-Jewish patient who has requested euthanasia?

2. If we decide that this is forbidden we must consider whether or
not the director is allowed to authorize the euthanasia, because he is
thereby leading the non-Jewish physician to transgress the prohibi-
tion of killing, thus himself violating “Do not put a stumbling block
before a blind man” (Vayikra 19:14).

The Rambam writes (Hilchos Rotzei’ach Ushemiras Nefesh 4:11),
“However, the non-Jews with whom we are not at war…their death
should not be brought about.” He writes further, (Hilchos Avodah
Zarah 10:1), “However, to actively eliminate him [i.e, a non-Jew] or
to push him into a pit and the like, is forbidden, since he is not wag-
ing war on us.” See the Kesef Mishneh (Hilchos Rotzeiach Ushemiras
Nefesh 2:11) and the Beis Meir (Even Ha’ezer 17:3).

The Raavan (Bava Kama 91) writes: “[The commandments] ‘Do
not murder’ and ’Do not commit adultery,’ apply to both Jews and
non-Jews.” The Sefer Hachinuch (34) writes, “[The thirty fourth
mitzvah is] not to kill another person, as it says,‘Do not murder.’ The
root of this mitzvah is well known and is obvious to every human
being, because Hashem built the world and has commanded us to
procreate, in order to populate the world before Him and has pre-
vented us from actively destroying it by killing and eliminating the
human beings populating the world.”

Rabbenu Bachye too, writes (Shemos 14:7) that the Torah forbids
killing a gentile during peacetime, because even in wartime we are
commanded to make peaceful overtures to them, even to ‘the seven
[corrupt Canaanite] nations,’ about whom it is written, “You shall
leave no living soul” (Devarim 20:16).

The Meshech Chochmah (parshas Mishpatim, s.v. Bimechila, ‘Rei’ei-
hu’) cites the Mechilta which states that a Jew who kills a non-Jew is
not liable for the death penalty by beis din, rather his fate is in Heaven’s

troduction to the pamphlet Shevilei Harefuah #6 and was printed in his sefer,
Teshuvos Vehanhagos 3,65. See also, Kovetz Halachah Urefuah Vol.4; parts of
that discussion will be quoted here.

446 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein