Life and Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical Ethics

Plot

When may artificial technologies be used to help create human life? Can abortion be morally right? When should life-sustaining treatment be stopped? How extensive are my responsiblities to support the health care needs of others? Technological and social developments have placed these quesztions at the center of society's concerns and in the middle of people's lives. The answers will make the difference between life and death for many of its members. The US and other socieites have explored these issues through crourts and commissions, through legislatve debat and privae delibartions of conscience. IN the Jewish tradition, the central means of address in these concerns is through halakhah, or Jewish law. WHile the insights of halakhah are central to the lives of many Jews, these perspectives have also beenf ound valuable by persons of other faith traditions and secular outloods. This book present papers on biomedical ethics that integrate the resources of millennia with the most recent developments in medicine and ethical thought. These include some of the most thoughtul and important works in Jewish medical ethics on such issues as treatment decisons near the end of life, abortion, and reproductive technoligies. The importance of the papers as statements of halakhah is evidence by theri approval by the RAC on Jewish Law and Satandards, halakhic guide for the Coservative movement.