Religious law resources/Mike's question

[at marie a. failinger]

Two resources on the Jewish view of abortion:
    Articles by David Feldman and Sandra Lubarsky in Contemporary Jewish
Ethics and Morality:  A Reader, ed. Elliot Dorff and Louis Newman, (Oxford
1995) (previously referred to by Emily, I think.)
    Selected topics in Jewish Law, Volume 4 (comes printed as Vols. 4-5 on
abortion and euthanasia), volume by Daniel Sinclair, Boston University,
Institute of Jewish Law, Hanina Ben-Menahem and Neil S. Hecht, eds.
     One form of argument for therapeutic abortion to save the mother's
life (Maimonides') uses the self-defense principle that the fetus is an
aggressor, another uses the comparative value of the mother's life (given
her responsibilities) with the fetus, still others use other arguments.
Perhaps most interesting to me because of the American controversy is the
distinction between prohibiting abortion and sanctioning it (e.g., with
capital punishment for the taking of a life). American law has largely
collapsed these distinctions, which makes for an interesting discussion
about the relative roles of social sanctions, legal sanctions, and
religious sanctions in our society.
    There is also a text on Islamic law covering this issue briefly (which
I can't find); my impression is that viability is a key concept for most
Islamic jurists.


Marie A. Failinger                          Voice: (612) 641-2124
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