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Fetal age

שו”תCategory: HalachaFetal age
asked 6 years ago

What does 40 days of pregnancy mean? Is it from the beginning of pregnancy or from delivery?
What halachic implications does this date have and can it help us define the fetus as a person for the purpose of abortion?


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מיכי Staff answered 6 years ago
This has halachic implications, but it is the view of the sages. Medically, I don’t know what exactly is happening at that time. It’s worth asking doctors. https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%9E%D7%93_%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A8_%D7%91%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%94

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BookerDewitt replied 6 years ago

What is your personal opinion on the matter? From a review of the website, there is no clear answer regarding the definition of the fetus as a person.

מיכי Staff replied 6 years ago

My personal opinion is that I don't know when a person is, and that's precisely why there is a moral prohibition against aborting him at any stage. When will there be a death penalty for murder? There is no such penalty for a fetus.

מישקובסקי replied 6 years ago

And why is there no punishment for fetal murder from a halakhic perspective?

מיכי replied 6 years ago

I don't know the rules of punishment. But it's likely that the sages thought he was not a complete man.

ח' replied 6 years ago

I think in a foreign country there is a death penalty for that.

מיכי Staff replied 6 years ago

True, and this is a hint at the root of the law. It seems that the fetus is considered a person but not a Jew. Therefore, there is a prohibition against him of "shedding the blood of man" and of "thou shalt not murder", just like a gentile. Hence, his murderer is not subject to death, like someone who murders a gentile, because there is no obligation of death for "shedding the blood of man", but only for "thou shalt not murder" (what I wrote is that there is a moral prohibition in this even if I did not follow the law, but more precisely that there is a halachic prohibition in this of "shedding the blood of man" and not of "thou shalt not murder", but that this halachic prohibition is a moral prohibition like the rest of the prohibitions of the sons of Noah). But a gentile who transgresses "shedding the blood of man" is subject to death, and therefore this is his law also with regard to a fetus. And carefully.

מישקובסקי replied 6 years ago

I liked

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