[Avodah] spurious correlation

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2011 at 03:13:07PM -0400, David Riceman wrote:
> Ought there to be any relation between a person's halachic opinion about  
> brain death and about abortion?

If brain death means the death of the brains ability to maintain
breath on its own, then the parallel would be when the baby starts
breathing on its own -- birth.

And most posqim do consider birth to be the start of life, and abortion
being prohibited for reasons other than murder. Perhaps a "toladah of
retzichah" perhaps "hashchasas zera", but not retzichah itself.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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