Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Condition Unchanged After 2 Years
Pastor Dale Morgan
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Condition Unchanged After 2
Years*
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 26, 2007; 11:26 AM
JERUSALEM -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains comatose
and attached to a respirator nearly two years after a devastating
stroke, a spokesman for Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv said Sunday.
"There is no change in his condition," hospital spokesman David Weinberg
said. Sharon, 79, was transferred to Sheba's long-term respiratory
rehabilitation unit in July 2006 from Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem,
which treated him after his stroke in January of that year.
Since Sharon's stroke, he has undergone three brain operations,
abdominal surgery and three minor surgical procedures.
Under established Jewish legal codes, it is forbidden to do anything to
hasten death. But other teachings say it is permissible to remove an
"impediment" standing in the way of the natural end of life, such as a
feeding tube or respirator. Rabbis remain deeply divided over what
constitutes an unreasonable obstacle to death.
According to Israeli medical law expert Yonatan Davies, Sharon "will
only be considered dead when his heart stops beating."
Raanan Gissin, Sharon's former adviser and a close family friend, said
Sharon exhibits no brain wave activity, but the family objects to
disconnecting the respirator.
"Everyone in the family believes he will recover," Gissin said.