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Abortion: Difference between revisions
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→What is the Prohibition?
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==What is the Prohibition?== | ==What is the Prohibition?== | ||
#'''Rabbi Moshe Feinstein''' - abortion is considered murder. However, this murder does not come with a death penalty. There are some cases of murder when the murderer does not get the death penalty. One of these cases is someone who murders one who is terminally ill (and cannot live 12 months).<ref>Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Part 2, Chapter 69. Rav Moshe's proofs are from Tosfot Sanhedrin 59a s.v. layka's question as well as Rambam (Retsicha 1:9). He answers why Rashi (Sanhedrin 72b s.v. yatza) is not a proof against him. </ref> | #'''Rabbi Moshe Feinstein''' - abortion is considered murder. However, this murder does not come with a death penalty. There are some cases of murder when the murderer does not get the death penalty. One of these cases is someone who murders one who is terminally ill (and cannot live 12 months).<ref>Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Part 2, Chapter 69. Rav Moshe's proofs are from Tosfot Sanhedrin 59a s.v. layka's question as well as Rambam (Retsicha 1:9). He answers why Rashi (Sanhedrin 72b s.v. yatza) is not a proof against him. Rav Chaim Halevi (Retsicha 1:9) explains Rambam like Rav Moshe that it is murder to abort a fetus. Achiezer 3:72 has another explanation of the Rambam according to which abortion isn't murder. </ref> | ||
#'''Rabbi Issar Unterman''' - abortion is considered אבזרייהו דרציחה akin to murder.<ref>I.Y. Unterman, Noam VI (1963), 1-11 as cited in David Feldman, Birth Control In Jewish Law</ref> | #'''Rabbi Issar Unterman''' - abortion is considered אבזרייהו דרציחה akin to murder.<ref>I.Y. Unterman, Noam VI (1963), 1-11 as cited in David Feldman, Birth Control In Jewish Law</ref> | ||
#It is a violation of the positive commandment of פרו ורבו. Part of the commandment is to allow every potential soul to come into being, and if one does abortion, they cannot do this.<ref>Yevamos 63b</ref> | #It is a violation of the positive commandment of פרו ורבו. Part of the commandment is to allow every potential soul to come into being, and if one does abortion, they cannot do this.<ref>Yevamos 63b</ref> | ||
#Spilling the seed/Onanism. The fetus is more similar to the basic seed than to a human, so destroying the fetus would be like destroying the seed.<ref>Talmud Bavli: Niddah 13a; Chavos Yair, Siman 31</ref> | #Spilling the seed/Onanism. The fetus is more similar to the basic seed than to a human, so destroying the fetus would be like destroying the seed.<ref>Talmud Bavli: Niddah 13a; Chavos Yair, Siman 31</ref> | ||
#Aborting the fetus is injuring the mother (Chavalah). Exodus 21 says that if two men are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and there is no death, but the fetus is miscarried, then they have to pay a monetary payment. So the fetus is more a part of the mother than a separate life.<ref>Exodus 21:22</ref> | #Aborting the fetus is injuring the mother (Chavalah).<ref>Maharit 97 at the beginning writes that abortion is a violation of chavalah. However, afterwards he implies that it is murder.</ref> Exodus 21 says that if two men are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and there is no death, but the fetus is miscarried, then they have to pay a monetary payment. So the fetus is more a part of the mother than a separate life.<ref>Exodus 21:22</ref> | ||
#It is a Rabbinical prohibition. There is no clear prohibition in the Torah, so our only real sources are the rabbinical sources.<ref>Sanhedrin 72b; Tzitz Eliezer, Jerusalem, 1963, volume VII, number 48, p. 190.</ref> | #It is a Rabbinical prohibition. There is no clear prohibition in the Torah, so our only real sources are the rabbinical sources.<ref>Sanhedrin 72b; Tzitz Eliezer, Jerusalem, 1963, volume VII, number 48, p. 190.</ref> | ||
#According to the Zohar, one who kills a fetus is guilty of destroying God’s handiwork.<ref>Hok L’Yisrael, Shemot for Monday, Zohar, Shemot 3b</ref> it is unclear if this constitutes a different view of the technical prohibition, or if this is just a reasoning explaining the severity of abortion. A punishment unlike that for murder is detailed. | #According to the Zohar, one who kills a fetus is guilty of destroying God’s handiwork.<ref>Hok L’Yisrael, Shemot for Monday, Zohar, Shemot 3b</ref> it is unclear if this constitutes a different view of the technical prohibition, or if this is just a reasoning explaining the severity of abortion. A punishment unlike that for murder is detailed. | ||
