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Abortion: Difference between revisions
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# 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 == | ||
# If the fetus is directly threatening the mother’s life and aborting the fetus will save the mother's life, then it is permissible to abort the fetus according to all | # If the fetus is directly threatening the mother’s life and aborting the fetus will save the mother's life, then it is permissible to abort the fetus according to all, since we prioritize the living over one that has not yet been born <ref>Mishna Ohelet Perek 7 Mishana 7</ref> and because the fetus is considered similar to a rodef (one who is chasing another to kill them). <ref>Rambam Hilchot Rotzeach Chapter 1:9</ref> | ||
# In Jewish Law, one must refuse to take an innocent life, even if one is threatened with death. Should this requirement extend to ending the life of an unborn fetus? There was a case during World War I in which a doctor was told to abort a baby carried by a mother that had been raped by a German officer. The German told the doctor to abort or be killed. In this kind of case there are two opinions. Rabbi Unterman states that since the prohibition is not murder, but akin to murder, you are allowed to kill the fetus. <ref>I.Y. Unterman, Noam VI (1963), 1-11 as cited in David Feldman, Birth Control In Jewish Law. </ref> Rabbi Moshe Feinstein disagrees and says that abortion is murder, but it is still unclear if you have to die rather than abort. <ref>Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Part 2, Chapter 69. </ref> | # In Jewish Law, one must refuse to take an innocent life, even if one is threatened with death. Should this requirement extend to ending the life of an unborn fetus? There was a case during World War I in which a doctor was told to abort a baby carried by a mother that had been raped by a German officer. The German told the doctor to abort or be killed. In this kind of case there are two opinions. Rabbi Unterman states that since the prohibition is not murder, but akin to murder, you are allowed to kill the fetus. <ref>I.Y. Unterman, Noam VI (1963), 1-11 as cited in David Feldman, Birth Control In Jewish Law. </ref> Rabbi Moshe Feinstein disagrees and says that abortion is murder, but it is still unclear if you have to die rather than abort. <ref>Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Part 2, Chapter 69. </ref> | ||
# According to many poskim, you are allowed to abort before 40 days of gestation, because no organs or limbs have formed yet and the fetus is not considered alive. <ref>Based on Yevamot 69b which refers to a pre 40 day fetus as “merely water” </ref> | # According to many poskim, you are allowed to abort before 40 days of gestation, because no organs or limbs have formed yet and the fetus is not considered alive. <ref>Based on Yevamot 69b which refers to a pre 40 day fetus as “merely water” </ref> | ||
