Noach 2025

 I was in EY and had no time to do this well, so here's something interesting. Especially in light of current legislation in Illinois and many other states to legalize doctor assisted suicide, called euthansia.


A letter I wrote to a friend:

You have expressed an interest in current legislation regarding euthanasia or assisted suicide. 
It may be worth knowing that according to the Minchas Chinuch in 34, suicide is not prohibited to Gentiles.
 והנה מאבד עצמו לדעת אינו בכלל לאו דלא תרצח רק חייב מיתה ביד"ש כמבואר בר"מ פ"ב מהל' רוצח ונ"מ אם שיבר כלים בשעת מעשה. גם נ"ל דב"נ אין מצווה דנלמד מאך דמכם לנפשותיכם ולא נישנית בסיני אם כן לישראל נאמרה ולא לבני נח.

According to the MInchas Chinuch, it would hard to make the argument that in Jewish thought suicide is criminally repugnant to the conscience and to society.

From R Ozer Alport in his Parsha Potpourri:
This is discussed at length in:
S’ridei Aish 104, Chovos HaLevavos Shaar HaBitachon, Matamei Yaakov, and Chavatzeles HaSharon

I personally think that is is absolutely assur. Why does the Torah give a reason for the issur retzicha, but not for the other less sichlius issurim? Because the chidush is that murder is not only a crime against the individual, it is a crime against nature, against society, against God. Once the Torah teaches this, then it follows that the issur of retzicha applies no less to suicide.

But the fact remains that once you have the Minchas Chinuch, it takes the wind out of the sails of moral revulsion. Similar to the daas yachid of the  The Tosfos Yomtov in Psachim 4:9 that says that neither cremation nor mummification is assur; both are muttar. The reason is that the result of these processes is that the remains are no longer lifelike; the body has no semblance of living material, and the process is equal to natural decay speeded up. On the contrary-- you are doing the person a favor by decreasing his wait time. This is obviously true in the case of cremation, and less obvious in the case of mummification, but that's what he says.

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