Chayim, the plural term for life. Notes on Jewish bioethics

If saving, protecting and healing lives is the holiest gesture for Judaism, the profession of the doctor approaches imitatio Dei. But the first doctor, according to Jewish law, is the patient himself… Journey into the world of medicine

The term bioethicsin general, indicates the set of values ​​and norms concerning the exercise of medical practice and scientific research regarding the bios, which in Greek means ‘life’, with particular attention to the problems posed by the beginning and the end of human existence (artificial insemination, abortion, aggressive treatment, euthanasia, etc.).
As part of a larger vision of the world, of man and of God, the Jewish bioethics is always inspired, if not derived, from the Torah and remains essentially founded on the Rabbinic Tradition that the Torah interprets, especially on the halakha. Therefore it is about a heteronomous ethici.e. that it does not ultimately depend on man and human reason but must be derived from a higher Law, with the L capital. Although the natural light of reason is also important in halakhic decisions (at least as much as it is in scientific discourse), nevertheless in the field of Jewish ethics reasoning must reason starting from the Torah, not as a substitute for it. The autonomy of the decider in the halakhic decision exists, but within the limits set by the halakha itself. This premise also implies that those decisions are to be considered, from the Jewish point of view, as real Duties (not advice or ‘rights’), although they are to be ascertained ‘case by case’ by those with expertise in evaluation and practical directive. In other words, a bioethics that uses the adjective ‘Jewish’ presupposes an attitude of religious faith in the regulations that blessed God has commanded to man (and ideally to all humanity) and that Israel has assumed responsibility, in Sinài, to execute, with the related charges.

As a set of principles and norms that concern human life, bioethics intends to protect this life from its incipit to its natural end. It is not always easy to establish or fix this incipit: even in Judaism there are different opinions, although there is a majority consensus about the fortieth day after conception (forty is, in Judaism, a symbolic number, indicating a fullness or reaching maturity). At the end of life, there are two different definitions of death: cardiac arrest or blockage of all brain activity, and this makes it difficult to establish what the ‘natural’ end of life is. But, under these medical debates, it remains there absolute centrality of human life. The Hebrew language has many ways to express the existence/vital essence of man whose organic matter – but also inorganic, from a chemical point of view – becomes ‘life’ thanks to a different element, that is spiritual, called ‘soul’, for which the non-synonymous terms nefesh, ruach and neshama are used. Together they come, so to speak, to compose the vital human unity for which the current term, in Hebrew, is chayimwhich stands for life or, grammatically, living being. Furthermore, it is a plural term, and this could already refer to the fact that it is difficult to speak of life in a univocal, singular, monological way. The complexity of the life-phenomenon described by the modern biological and psychological sciences is already alluded to by that plural, chayim, which does not allow life to be confined to a single dimension, the physical or physiological, as was the tendency among positivist scientists between Otto and twentieth century.

For the Jewish world the priceless value of life it is the basis of everything, it is the regulating criterion both of the moral system and of the norms of purity, it is the framework of the hashqafà or Weltanschauung of the whole of Judaism, in which we then find the precepts (mitzwot) and the rest of the moral teachings (musar) articulated. Life, Jewish, is sacred and inviolable; this sacredness (qedusha) derives from the faith in being created be-tzelem Elohim, in the divine image. All Jewish bioethics is inspired de jure and de facto by this sacredness. From here it follows the mandatory duty to ‘save every human life’ and in that saving we must include the protection, safeguarding, guarding of life as well as rescuing and caring for it if she is injured or in danger of death. Let’s talk about life in the unity of body-and-soulof course, because in this perspective there is no life without a body and the health of the body is a condition for the integrity and health of the soul. Not only that, but here the body should be understood not as a private property, to be disposed of at will, but as a gift and a responsibility for oneself and for others (the community, the social/political body in fact), because no self is understandable nor can it live or subsist without the we of a family and a community. It is in relation to this sacredness and this duty that it is interpreted the verse of the Torah: “You will observe My laws [chuqqotai] and My statutes [mishpatai]by practicing which man has life [wa-chai ba-hem]” (Wayqrà/Lev 18.5).

All the ‘actors’ of bioethics must comply with this fundamental principle of the protection of life: scientists and doctors, nurses and halakhic and/or political decision-makers, but above all the sick, the so-called ‘patient’ (he is not a mere client of the healthcare company) on whom the first, if not the main, bioethical duties we are talking about fall. It is often believed that bioethics concerns the healthcare system as such, or the corporations of doctors and paramedics, or concerns only the relationship between doctor and patient, and the ethical awareness that the patient must have above all is underestimated. We could say that every sick person is or should consider himself his own first doctorin the sense that he must be the first one who cares about his own health and recovery. “If I am not for me, who will be for me?” (Pirqé Avot I,14) is a saying attributed to Hillel the elder. Before being a right, health is a duty that implies choosing a responsible lifestyle, aimed at preventing any risks to our health safety. Let’s call her ‘preventive bioethics’, just as there is preventive medicine for the same purpose. Like any true ethics of responsibility, Jewish bioethics is also aimed at assessing the ethical/morality of an action based on its consequences, and while it may be doubtful that an action with positive consequences is commanded by the Torah and generally from the Jewish tradition, it is certain that an action that has negative consequences, for oneself and/or for others or that damages the body or soul/human psyche, is always reprehensible and condemned from the Jewish point of view. The question of ethical consequences assumes a central role in Jewish bioethics, alongside the other and more obvious criterion which is compliance with the norms of the Torah and of the halakha. Where these are explicit, it is only necessary to logically ‘deduce’ and ‘apply’ the general rule to specific cases. But where the specific cases are not explicitly mentioned in the general rule, a hermeneutical-applicative effort is needed which requires an objective evaluation, a weighting of the multiple and different approaches to the problem and a discernment which also weighs a principle of gradualness.

The Jewish faith believes that life and death have a transcendent dimension beyond the natural one; the paths of the physical health of the human being are not always linear and predictable by science; finally, the fact that, at times, the same medicines can have different effects when administered to different patients, and that not all patients respond in the same way to the same therapies, applies to everyone, believers and non-believers, observant or not. In the end, faith teaches that the ultimate key to life is not in our hands. It is a teaching attested by rabbinic sources when they attribute to blessed God the title of Rofè or He who heals, the Physician par excellence. From the Jewish point of view, the medical profession is a real imitatio Dei and perhaps none contribute more to the ideal of the tiqqun ha’olamto the betterment of the world, through the care of bodies and the alleviation of human suffering, which although they seem only corporal are always also psycho-spiritual.

Chayim, the plural term for life. Notes on Jewish bioethics – JoiMag