Suffering, both physical and mental, is apparent as Eli Timoner lies in a hospital bed in his living room, waiting to end his life through medically assisted suicide.
His decision, along with scenes from the 92-year-old entrepreneur’s life and eventual death in 2021, are poignantly documented in the “Last Flight Home,” which will screen on March 23 at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.
A discussion led by Mark Greenberg on Jewish perspectives regarding medically assisted death will follow the screening of the 2022 documentary. Greenberg is executive director of End of Life Choices California, a nonprofit based in the San Diego area that provides information and support based on the California End of Life Option Act, which took effect in 2016. The law allows someone to obtain a prescription for an “aid-in-dying drugs” if the person has a terminal illness that cannot be cured or reversed and is expected to die within six months
Greenberg has led discussions at previous screenings of the documentary, which was written and directed by one of Timoner’s daughters and features his wife, son and another daughter, who is a rabbi.
Medically assisted death is deeply controversial within Jewish ethics and tradition. At a basic level, it is forbidden: Life is sacrosanct, and it is not permissible to end a life. Essentially, the body is created by God, belongs to God and should not be destroyed.
In general, Orthodox rabbis consider assisted death a type of suicide, which is prohibited.
But as is typical in Jewish ethics, rabbis and thinkers across the Jewish movements have been grappling with the idea of assisted death as it has become more widespread.
“There are no unequivocal answers for these daunting questions,” wrote the late Dr. Alan Bennett on the Reform movement’s website. “Moreover, some Jewish positions contradict others.”
The views of the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis on the topic has changed over time, Greenberg noted.
The rabbinic organization came out against assisted suicide in the mid-1990s. But a more recent response argued that Reform Judaism is obliged to consider how the situation has changed since earlier Jewish opinions on health, dying and death were written.
“We believe that the halachic prohibitions against hastening or causing death live side by side with extensive recognition of the just cause of the person who loves life, but finds that life is no longer a blessing given the conditions in which they must live it,” the rabbinic group wrote two years ago.
Rabbi Elliot Dorff, writing in 2020 as a member of the Conservative movement’s committee that provides guidance on Jewish law, reversed his previous opinion on a total ban on assisted death. There are “some narrow exceptions to the general prohibition of seeking or offering aid in dying, for which I argued in 1997,” he wrote. While repudiating the idea of euthanasia by choice, Dorff wrote that it could be permissible for those who “have six months or less to live because of their underlying, terminal disease, and then only those whose pain cannot be controlled.”
Added Dorff, “We imitate God in being compassionate, as the Psalmist (145:9) says: ‘The Lord is good to all, and His mercy embraces all His works’… In some cases, though, even hospice care is not enough to quell pain, and so then, I am arguing, imitating God requires us to allow aid in dying as well.”
Greenberg recently spoke to J. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
J.: Does medically assisted suicide go against Jewish law?
Mark Greenberg: In the last few years, the Reform and Conservative movements have taken a new look at the subject. They determined that in states where it is legal, there is general support for allowing a patient to request the medication and also support for permitting Jewish physicians to prescribe it.
Can you elaborate?
I don’t want to speak on behalf of either movement. But in 2023, a Reform responsum was issued that basically said: With advances in medical knowledge and technology, medical aid in dying may be allowable, with some caveats that the choice is not being made because of depression, financial considerations or a lack of sufficient medical care.
Late in 2020, Conservative Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff published a responsum arguing that “in a limited number of cases … we should allow aid in dying.”
Some Jewish texts also support this. One story tells of a rabbi on his deathbed who is being kept alive through the prayers of the community. A servant who sees the rabbi’s struggle with extreme pain goes up on the roof and drops a vase. When it hits the ground, that breaks the chain of prayers and allows the rabbi to pass.
What do you tell audiences about your organization?
End of Life Choices California was founded in 2019. We now have 60 trained volunteers across California, and last year we answered about a thousand inquiries about end-of-life alternatives. We also have volunteers who attend deaths, to help comfort families and help mix the medications.
How widely is this option used in California?
In 2023, the California Department of Health reported about 1,250 prescriptions were written and 850 were used.
Who typically comes to your screenings and presentations?
We reach out to all faith organizations, and the highest interest is from the Jewish community.
We get a more secular or culturally Jewish audience than observant because the topic aligns with how they think about the world or because their Judaism includes being open to options and changing perspectives.
How does “Last Flight Home” amplify the message you want to get across to your audience?
It puts a human face on the person and on the family when it comes to medical aid in dying. This movie is a gift of love because it shows how this family comes to respect their father’s wishes and it also shows how the law makes sure a person is qualified to use the medication.
How do audiences react to these tough dilemmas?
We don’t get heckled. Reactions are generally positive.