Q. Since you are not allowed to touch a Gosses (a patient close to a certain death), lest you speed his death, should one refrain the health practitioners such as nurses from moving or giving treatment that may shorten the life of the Gosses?
A. In Halacha a Gosses is considered to be completely and fully alive and if the mind functions and one can communicate, one may carry out any legal act such as a divorce or transfer of property etc. (Tur, Y.D. 339).
Anyone who hastens or does anything that may precipitate the death of the Gosses, even if the patient would have died anyway, may be considered a murderer
However, one may do anything that can extend, if only temporarily the life of the Gosses. One may also desecrate Shabbos to do treatment that may extend that life (Tossafos Niddah 44b).
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
