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Abortion: Difference between revisions
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# According to 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. <ref> Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Part 2, Chapter 69</ref> | # According to 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. <ref> Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Part 2, Chapter 69</ref> | ||
# According to 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> | # According to 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> | ||
# 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). 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 s no clear prohibition in the Torah, so our only real sources are the rabbinical sources. <ref>Sanhedrin עב; 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. | ||
== Practical Abortion Cases == | == Practical Abortion Cases == | ||
