JERUSALEM, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli court has recently permitted a case of euthanasia that allowed doctors to disconnect a terminally ill patient from life support machines, in the first case of its kind in Israel, local media reported on Wednesday.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that a few days after the verdict, doctors euthanized the patient, a man in his forties, by gradually diminishing the functioning of a respirator and administrating him with palliative sedatives.
The Tel Aviv District Court made its decision after Israel's Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein reached a precedent-setting opinion to authorize the act, Ha'aretz reported.
The case was cleared for publication only on Tuesday, after a gag order was lifted.
According to the court, the patient, whose name was not disclosed, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a chronic neuro-degenerative condition also known as "Lou Gehrig's disease."
For the past seven years, the patient, who was paralyzed and could only move his eyes for limited communication with his surroundings, was put on a respirator and artificially fed.
Recently, his condition deteriorated steeply and his doctors feared he will lose the ability to communicate with his eyes, the court said in its decision.
In Israel, the Terminal Patient Law of 2005 allows doctors to refrain from prolonging the life of a terminally ill patient whose life expectancy is less than six months, but not to actively assist the termination of a patient's life.
Physician-assisted euthanasia is legal in a few U.S. states and European countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium.
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