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At
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/6tawbv7" eudora="autourl">
http://tinyurl.com/6tawbv7</a> R. Gil Student concludes<br><br>
<font size=3>I suggest, albeit tentatively, that the husband who flagged
down someone to help was doing the right thing in trying to secure either
a woman or gentile to assist. He must even hire someone to help if
necessary; certainly he must try to ask someone to help. If no help was
forthcoming, then he should delivery the baby himself.<br><br>
An additional consideration is that almost anyone is more qualified to
deliver a baby than the father, who is usually so nervous that he cannot
properly function. Add in the unusual roadside circumstances and you have
a very jittery man. A stranger is probably better for the wife. Of
course, the wife is probably uncomfortable with a strange man delivering
her baby. The exact calculus of which is greater–the physical benefit of
a clear-thinking man or the psychological detriment of a strange
man–seems impossible to resolve on any general basis. Every case is
different.<br><br>
Of course, this all assumes that he had sufficient time to find someone.
If not, he would be endangering his wife’s and his baby’s lives. From the
fact that he was successful, we can deduce that either he had enough time
to ask for help or he was lucky. My two youngest children were extremely
quick deliveries but I seem to recall time for brief discussion (by the
doctor, not me) during the final moments.<br><br>
In the end, I can’t condemn the man. He may have done the halakhically
proper thing. It all depends on so many factors that we cannot evaluate
from a brief news report. Most important to note is that he did not
abandon his wife; he sought help. If no one was available to assist, he
would certainly have delivered the baby himself rather than abandon his
wife and newborn to child to an uncertain fate.<br><br>
See the above URL for the entire article. YL<br>
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