Q&A: Abortion of a Fetus with a Defect
Abortion of a Fetus with a Defect
Question
Hello and blessings,
I saw that the Rabbi wrote to several questioners that in his opinion it is forbidden to abort a fetus both morally and from the standpoint of Jewish law (after 40 days).
I would be glad if the Rabbi could explain further:
- What exactly is the moral problem? After all, this fetus is still not an independent and separate entity; it is part of the mother's body, as explained below. In addition, the Rabbi has written several times that moral prohibitions are measured according to society's perception in that generation, and today society does not see this as a moral problem at all.
- From the standpoint of Jewish law—the Talmud itself says several times that "a fetus is its mother's thigh," and we also see in the Torah that a person who causes a woman to miscarry is not judged under capital law, but under monetary law. So what exactly is the prohibition based on? After all, a woman is allowed to decide that she is amputating her own thigh for medical purposes, for example, and I have not seen that discussed as murder (at most as causing injury), and that is exactly what the Talmud says about fetuses. (Also, the exposition of "one who sheds the blood of a person within a person" seems to be merely a textual support and not an actual Torah law, yet all the halakhic decisors who discuss this relate to it as a full-fledged prohibition of murder.)
Thank you
Answer
If you really see the fetus as its mother's thigh, then indeed there is no problem. My claim is that this is not the case. The fetus is an entity that stands somewhere between a fertilized egg and a human being, and because we have no way to determine when it crosses the line into being a human being, one must be stringent throughout the entire process.
I never wrote that morality is determined by the norms of that generation. I have written the opposite countless times.
When the Talmud says that a fetus is its mother's thigh, it does not mean literally an organ, because otherwise there would be no prohibition at all against killing fetuses. Even if it is not a prohibition of murder, it is still a prohibition. For some reason you decided that this is merely a textual support. That is incorrect. It is also not true that all halakhic decisors see this as murder. Only Rabbi Moshe Feinstein sees this as a prohibition of "You shall not murder," and even according to his view there is no death penalty for it.