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euthanasia

Michael Podolsky with his cat, a few years before the onset of ALS. Podolsky, 44, was the first named individual with ALS to successfully fight for his right to die in Israel in almost 30 years and the first to donate his organs. He died on September 25, 2025.(Courtesy/Tamar Ashkenazi)
September 30, 2025, 4:47 pm
Circumventing Israeli law, judge grants ALS patient’s right to die; he donates his organs
Mechanically ventilated oxygen for Michael Podolsky, 44, was reduced at Sheba Medical Center last week; became the first ALS patient under end-of-life care to donate organs
By Diana Bletter
In this file photo taken on August 12, 2020 Alain Cocq rests on his medical bed in his flat in Dijon, northeastern France. (Photo by PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP)
September 5, 2020, 7:17 pm
Facebook blocks terminally ill Frenchman from streaming his death
After Macron turns down his request for euthanasia, Alain Cocq refuses all food and drink, attempts to broadcast his final days to show ‘agony’ caused by French law
By Loïc VENNIN
Most of these children from the Protestant Katharinenhof institution were euthanized at Sonnenstein (public domain)
May 9, 2020, 12:15 pm
80 years ago, lethal Nazi T4 center began euthanizing Germans with disabilities
After implementing tens of thousands ‘merciful deaths,’ Hartheim Castle’s crematoria personnel were sent to build Holocaust death camps in occupied Poland
By Matt Lebovic
Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg and other religious authorities present to Pope Francis a document denouncing euthanasia, October 28, 2019. (Courtesy/Chief Rabbinate spokesperson Kobi Alter)
October 29, 2019, 2:25 am
Rabbis join ‘historic’ interfaith call at Vatican against assisted suicide
In initiative spearheaded by Israeli ethicist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim leaders submit to Pope Francis a joint document denouncing ‘Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide’
By AFP and ToI Staff
Pope Francis celebrates a mass in St. Peter basilica at the Vatican, November 18, 2018. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
November 23, 2018, 12:17 am
Vatican and Israeli Chief Rabbinate preparing joint statement against euthanasia
Representatives gather for 16th Bilateral Commission to discuss matters of human dignity ‘with special reference to the child’ in Jewish and Catholic teaching
By JTA
Illustrative image of newborn baby (Getty Images)
May 12, 2017, 4:46 pm
Nurse accused of ‘mercy killing’ in death of premature baby
Fellow caretaker says colleague unplugged baby’s respirator when it became clear that infant’s chance for survival was low
By ToI Staff
A bus and driver photographed outside Germany's Hartheim killing center in 1940, where physically and mentally disabled people were given 'mercy killings' through the secret T4 program (Public domain)
May 3, 2017, 8:09 pm
Scientists to identify victims of Nazi euthanasia
Project relies on 2014 discovery of slides of brain sections of those killed during Hitler’s rule
By Hui Min NEO
Illustrative photo of a doctor and patient. (kzenon/istockphoto)
April 6, 2017, 3:00 pm
Ultra-Orthodox group backs up NY law banning assisted suicide
Agudath Israel of America files amicus brief in euthanasia lawsuit by terminally ill patients and their doctors
By JTA
An illustrative photo of a Filipina worker helping an elderly woman on November 2, 2010. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)
February 16, 2017, 2:00 am
Caregiver suspected of murdering 90-year-old in old-age home
Signs of strangulation found on body of elderly man at Jerusalem facility; doctor questioned on why marks were not initially reported
By ToI Staff
Notorious Nazi physician Josef Mengele as a young doctor, left, and the 'ramp' at Auschwitz-Birkenau in May of 1944, where Mengele sometimes selected inmates for life, death or 'experimentation.' (Public domain)
October 27, 2016, 12:02 pm
The long, twisted shadow cast by Nazi medical experiments
Seven decades after Nazi camp inmates were tortured in the name of medical research, it is increasingly clear the experimentation was conducted by scientists well beyond known ‘Nazi hacks and SS quacks’
By Matt Lebovic
Neuroscientist and early member of the Nazi Party Julius Hallervorden in 1935. He conducted research with brains from victims of the Nazis' involuntary euthanasia program until the 1960s.
August 31, 2016, 8:38 pm
German institute finds brain parts used by Nazis for research during, and after, WWII
Max Planck Institute now trying to determine whether Jews were among those whose organs were abused in gruesome case
By Raphael Ahren
Sharon L. Sobel
April 20, 2016, 3:12 pm
Sharon L. Sobel
Whose life is it anyway?
Canada’s move to permit physician-assisted suicide challenges traditional Jewish teachings about ending a life
Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, attends a press conference following his election in Frankfurt am Main, central Germany, on November 30, 2014. (AFP/Daniel Roland)
November 3, 2015, 1:49 am
Germany’s Jewish group warns lawmakers on euthanasia law
Central Council of Jews voices opposition to proposed liberalization of assisted suicide
By JTA
Directors Tal Granit, right, and Sharon Maymon laugh as they pose for photographs following an interview with The Associated Press for their film The Farewell Party, during the 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. (Photo credit: AP/David Azia)
September 1, 2014, 5:27 am
Israel’s ‘The Farewell Party’ finds humor in death
New film tackles assisted suicide, illegal in Israel and other countries, with a dose of laughter
By Jill Lawless
A baby seen sleeping in a cradle, illustrative photo (Chen Leopold/Flash90)
June 21, 2014, 8:08 am
Czechs condemn Nazi-like child euthanasia proposal
A government adviser resigned after saying doctors should be allowed to end disabled babies’ lives without parents’ consent
By AP
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