As I understand (and this coming from a Rabbi who worked with the hopice I was associated with), the Jewish belief is that all life is given by God and connected to God. To artificially and "heroically" extend life, when natural causes would have ended it, is to go against God and therefore cannot be used. However, in a situation where death is not imminent and life support is used, it cannot then be removed if the patient fails because to do so would be to end the life, therefore violating the prohibition against the taking of human life.

As expressed by this Rabbi the teaching is marvelously coherent and beats many "christian" practices to pieces.

So, while we may argue ad nauseum as to whether the artificial means of support should have been used in the first place, the fact is it is in place and cannot be removed without causing these family members to violate their conscience and their faith.

And, while I may be in the absolute minority here, I just simply cannot believe that the human race has sunk so low that we measure the worth of a human in dollar signs. If we have, maybe we don't deserve to exist any more. To do a little cross threading here, I have another thread where I tell the story of trying to save a Red Tail hawk and finding out that I lost. I have been deeply touched by the posts in that thread. It just seems ironic that so much compassion can be, and often is, demonstrated to creatures in the wild, and we are so callous about human life.

I think that hawk lived in much closer relationship with its maker than we do with ours.

Freightdawg