[Avodah] Fasting on YK

[Daniel Israel]

On Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:59:52 -0700 Meir Shinnar 
<chidekel at gmail.com> wrote:
>In a discussion on areivim about pregnant women fasting on yom  
>kippur, the issue was raised about the tension between classical 
>psak (SA- ubrot umeinkot mitanot umashlimot beyom hakipurrim), and 
the  
>opinion of most obstetricians today (note: while I am a physician, 
>I am not an obstetrician), who believe that there is a risk in  
>fasting.

Without minimizing the importance of any of the issues you raise, I 
think there is another factor is strongly affecting the medical 
advice that is being given.  The medical community has become 
incredibly risk averse.  There are many reasons for that change.  
It is partly social (as a society we expect more), partly 
scientific (modern medical technology has led us to expect more), 
but mostly, IMHO, driven by malpractice costs.  If I were an 
obstetrician, I would tell my patients not to fast, regardless of 
the metzius, simply because if there is any evidence of any level 
of risk, and something bad happened during the fast, I might get 
sued.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu