[Avodah] mi yamut

[M Cohen]

RDK writes ... I also remember reading somewhere that RSZA was once asked by
a pregnant woman whether she could abort her foetus because it suffered from
some abnormality.  He told the woman to go down the road to a nice Rabbi
called R. Waldenburg (the Tzitiz Eliezer), who would be able to answer her
question... It is recorded, IIRC, that R. Chaim Brisker would also tell
sho'alim to ask the dayan their questions, because his p'sak would be too
burdensome (as with the RSZA incident) or too radical (as with the R. Chaim
Volozhiner incident). Couldn't the posek in question have told the sho'el to
ask someone else who would pasken that the youth was dead, or would this
have been a travesty of halacha?  If so, why is it different from the cases
cited above?

it's much easier to defer the question to another when it's only issues of
v'sen tal umatar or even 
abortion (d'rabanon or only a lav d'orisa), as opposed to a question of
murder.

mordechai cohen