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.
Original Source