Euthanasia and the Meaning of Murder in Jewish Law

Anyone who has taken a college philosophy class is likely familiar with the debate between “consequentialists,” who judge whether an act is moral based on its outcome, and “formalists” (or “deontologists”) for whom acts in themselves are forbidden or permissible. Of course, neither position, in its pure form, is acceptable to common sense. Likewise, the Jewish tradition combines both approaches. Daniel Z. Feldman examines some halakhic perspectives on this philosophical debate, focusing on the example of murder—which seems at first blush to be a case where Jewish law takes a strictly formalist approach: