Q&A: Aborting a Child with a Disability
Aborting a Child with a Disability
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to know the Rabbi’s opinion about aborting a child when during pregnancy it is known that the child has a severe defect, such as intellectual disability or a physical disability, if in my view the child’s life and the family’s life would not be good because of this.
Answer
I’ve written here more than once about abortions, and you can search for it. In general, in my view abortion is murder—even if not in terms of Jewish law, then morally. However, in a case where the child is going to live a life of very severe suffering, there is room for it for the child’s own sake. But not for anyone else’s sake (including the parents).
Discussion on Answer
No.
But if abortion is murder, then what difference does it make whether he was born or not yet born?
It is moral murder. But morally, the quality of the fetus’s life also has value, and there is room to permit this in light of that. Even in Jewish law, when it comes to the prohibition against suicide and murder, King Saul killed himself so as not to fall into the hands of his enemies, and there are halakhic decisors who learn from here a general permission.
And if he is alive, are you also in favor of euthanasia? Without his consent? (And if he lacks mental capacity)