The Task Force noted that these measures were wholly consistent with Jewish values and teachings. Jewish ethics value healing and the preservation of life as important goals and as activities mandated by God. Judaism respects our bodies and lives as God's creation, graciously entrusted to our care. Medical treatment that contributes to a patient's recovery is clearly supported by Jewish ethics. So is treatment intended to improve the patient's functioning or to relieve pain.
Jewish tradition places no value on suffering for suffering's sake.
Measures to relieve pain are authorized even in cases where there are risks entailed from the drugs prescribed for pain relief. And in situations where treatment is not effective and the patient is dying, doctors have no obligation to prolong the dying and may act to remove pain and make the end of life as comfortable as it can be. These same Jewish values dictated the Task Force's support of the expansion of hospice care at the end of life. Commitment to hospice care which signifies the acceptance of the inevitability of imminent death of course requires the approval of the patient and his family. Its purpose is to keep the patient in a familiar environment, provide support services and keep the patient as pain-free, productive and integrated in family and community as much and for as long as possible.