Anesthesia and Autonomy
To the Rabbi, peace be upon you.
I wanted to offer an interpretation of the law of the equivalent of life itself, and I wanted to know if the rabbi had any comments on it (it is possible, of course, that others have said similar things, and if so, I would also like to know about it).
There is a value of "subjective truth," meaning that everyone will act according to the truth as they understand it (essentially similar to the value of "autonomy" in jurisprudence that the Rabbi mentioned in the lessons on learning and jurisprudence - but on the individual level)
There is also value in having a general legal system.
Sometimes these two values contradict each other. In such a case, the legal system Sterilizer The subjective opinion – if Rabbi Yehoshua thinks that today is Yom Kippur and the Sanhedrin decided otherwise, then Rabbi Yehoshua’s opinion is not valid even for himself – and he must come to Rabbi Gamliel with his rod and his words.
But sometimes these two values do not directly contradict each other – when a person says, "I found an open door," it is not conclusive evidence, but we also do not have any other conclusive evidence that contradicts his words.
In such a case, on the one hand, this man's words have no power to determine the woman's status, but the legal system also has no power to uproot the value of his "subjective truth," and therefore he remains committed to it.
Not likely. Because, simply put, the law of non-life applies even when there are two witnesses against him. Although some have doubted this, and perhaps according to their opinion it is possible to say as you say (although there are also those who divide between one witness and two).
The case of the Yoch is not related here, since regarding the sanctification of the month and the passing of the year, the President of the Sanhedrin has authority, even if he is mistaken or intentional. This is a special law.
In my opinion, this has nothing to do with the duty of autonomy of the person, but rather that the person has the authority/loyalty to determine the reality in his territory. Evidence laws only exist when in an objective territory outside the person. I argued this in column 374.
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