[Avodah] [Areivim] if they asked, it would have been assur

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 21, 2007 2:23pm EST, RZS wrote in reply to RMYG:
> : Sirus is an issur deoraisa.  Even chemical sirus is assur for a male.

> BTW, I wondered about the limits of this. Is it assur for a man to
> eat black licorice? (Assuming it's flavored with licorice or liquorice,
> and not anise, black licorice reduces fertility by lowering serum
> testosterone levels.)

I know of no makor, but it seems to me that sirus means making someone
completely sterile (or so close to it as not to make any practical
difference), not merely reducing his fertility.


> I do not know the relative chumrah of abortion
> before 40 and sirus, but I would therefore not be surprised if someone were to
> pasqen lequlah or lechumrah in the case of severe psychological distress.
> OTOH, if one matirs, what other cases would ever exist? Who else would
> consider sirus? Wouldn't that be la'aqor davar min haTorah in a manner in
> which no din is left?

1. people have vasectomies/tubal ligations every day, without suffering
any kind of distress, but simply because they don't see themselves ever
(again) wanting children.

2. The issur would remain against sterilising other people, who have no
medical necessity, without their consent.  (In addition to the issurim
bein adam lachavero, of course.)

 

> : The Tzitz Eliezer paskens that the person is now a woman, and if she
> : hadn't given her wife a get earlier, she wouldn't need one now,
> : because she's no longer an eshet ish.
> 
> And before surgery the person is an androgynus, or male?

He was male.  She is now female.  The fact that he was a fertile man
and she is now an infertile woman doesn't matter.  There are plenty
of infertile women, who nevertheless have the full status of females.
He is no different, according to the TzE.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas