[Avodah] Pikuach Nefesh

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 08:57:14AM -0400, Richard Wolberg wrote:
: I think that the answer is obvious. These innocent passengers were going 
: to be killed in any event, therefore, wouldn't it be logical to shoot down the plane 
: to save even one person (let alone thousands) in the towers or pentagon since these 
: passengers were doomed from the start. 

See the case of Sheva ben Bikhri (Shemuel II ch 20).

>From it, the gemara concludes (Sanhedrin 72b, Y-mi Terumos 8:4) that
if attackers come to a caravan and demand that a particular person be
turned in to them or all will be killed, you may. According to Reish
Laqish, only if he is deserving of fath lehalakhah, as in the case in
the navi. According to R' Yochanan, anyone. But if they do not specify
a person, forcing the people in the caravan to choose, you do not.

This defies your pragmatic reasoning. Apparently he considers not becoming
a murderer proactively to be of moral value even if it means more people
die. R' Yochanan says that this only applies when you pick the victim;
Reish Laqish says that even if they pick the victim, turning him over
is sufficiently murderous to be a moral problem.

The Rambam (Yesodei haTorah 5:5) holds like Reish Laqish

The Rama explicitly distinguishes this from the case of abortion to save
the life of the mother, or even infanticide during delivery if leaving the
child alone would mean both die. See Rashi on Sanhedrin. A non-viable
child is like one the attackers already singled out for death.

It would seem Torah morality is deontological, not consequentialist. (IOW,
it is about how people act more than outcomes.) See R' Michael J Harris's
article in Torah uMadda Journal at
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/32656397/Untitled>.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
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