[Avodah] Abortion

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 00:41:50 EDT
T613K at aol.com wrote [on Areivim, quoted with permission]:

...

> pro-life movement.  As one example, the Pope would say that a baby's life  comes 
> before the mother's and that a mother should die rather than allow an  abortion, 
> but the majority of Protestant pro-lifers would give the mother's life  
> preference.

Note that Rav Yitzhak Shor (Resp. Koah Shor #20) initially suggests that
according to Rambam that the Halachic dispensation to abort a fetus to
save the mother's life is the principle of Rodef, it follows that where
the danger to the mother is unrelated to her pregnancy, abortion is
prohibited even to save the mother's life!  He is discussing a case
of potentially fatal maternal hemorrhaging, where the (Jewish) doctor
has determined that there is absolutely no way to save the woman without
aborting the fetus, and he argues that if medical science (which he
terms "tevunos hachmos nisgavos") determines that her ailment is
unrelated to her pregnancy, which is certainly plausible since many non
pregnant women suffer from similar problems, then since the fetus is
not causing her danger, we may not abort it, even though our inaction
will result in the mother's death.

After a lengthy analysis, however, he concludes that even according to
Rambam, the primary justification for permitting abortion is, as Rashi
says, that the fetus is not a 'nefesh', and Rambam only invokes the
principle of Rodef to imply that if we can save the mother by merely
amputating a part or parts of the fetus, as opposed to destroying
it, then we must do so, just as we are commanded to do in a classic case
of Rodef.  He therefore concludes that even Rambam would permit abortion
in the aforementioned case.

> --Toby  Katz

Yitzhak
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