moran@aluxp.UUCP (Alan Lustiger) (02/24/86)
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I have been very surprised to see recent articles by Adam Reed
and the Jewish views on abortion not being challenged by more
knowledgable Orthodox readers on the net. I am certainly no
expert on the subject, but I do know that there is no "one
Jewish view."
Orthodox views on abortion range from it being tantamount
(but not equivalent) to murder, advanced (I believe) by the
late Rabbi Untermann, to the allowance of abortion even in
cases of extreme mental anguish on the part of the mother.
There are arguments as to whether the prohibition is rabbinical
or biblical; as to whether it is considered a "wounding" of
the mother or if the prohibition is the same as the prohibition
against wasting the male seed or whether it is some other
"issur,"; as to whether the length of time of the pregnancy
is a factor or not. I cannot begin to say all of the opinions
that have been discussed.
Essentially the only points of agreement are: the fetus' life
is certainly not as important as the mother's; and that one
cannot have an abortion for convenience's sake. Practically
every view in between has been advanced by some Jewish scholar
or another throughout the centuries.
I do not believe that there is any authority who says that
whether the child would be born with a birth defect is a criterion
for the decision. A Tay-Sachs baby, chas v'sholom, has as
much of a right to be born as any other. Possibly, if the
mother would not be able to handle it mentally, some extremely
left-wing poskim would differentiate between the existence
of birth defects or not; but it would be very presumptuous
to present that as The Jewish View.
I do not know where Adam got the information that the fetus
that is a product of a prohibited union may be aborted. I have
seen that opinion (I could look up the name of the rabbi), but
as I remember it, that opinion held that someone who did a sin
that is worthy of capital punishment may commit suicide; and
therefore an adulterous pregnant woman needn't worry about
the fetus' life. As far as I know, nobody nowadays holds of
this opinion: a person is only liable for capital punishment
if there are witnesses who testify against him/her. At any
rate, abortion of a "mamzer" is NOT halachically permissible!
There are hundreds of other cases documented in Jewish halachic
literature. There are questions as to whether abortion is
mandated if a terminally ill woman's life would be shortened
as a result of the birth; whether it is permissible if the
mother would become permanently deaf as a result of the birth;
whether a Jewish doctor can be forced to do an abortion at
gunpoint (this actually happened in Germany during WWI). When
one researches the subject one is struck as to how sensitively
it is handled by halachic authorities.
The bottom line is that a recognized rabbinical authority should
be consulted on a case-by-case basis. It is highly irresponsible
to say that the Jewish view is that abortion is "wrong" or "right."
I would recommend for reading: the chapter on abortion in
"Contemporary Halachic Problems", by Rabbi J. David Bleich, for
an overview of halachic literature on the subject. Also, and
I'm not sure of the exact titles, David Feldman's "Jewish Views
on Abortion and Birth Control" and a book by Basil Herring
on modern Halacha and ethics.
Alan Lustiger
AT&T Technologies World Headquarters
Berkeley Heights, NJ
{Bell Labs locations}!aluxp!bkuxb!al (this is a guest account)