Mother has right to abortion, but ietus outside womb has
Thursdoy, July 17. 1975—THE BULLETIN—7
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right to life-Conservative view '^^^ource catalogue
NEW YORK-Judaism makes a distinction between a mother's right to abortion and the maintenance of the life of a viable fetus, in the view of rabbinical and medical particiiiants in a conference on abortion and fetal research.
The conference at the Jewish Theological Seminary was sponsored jointly by the Committee of Bio-Medical Ethics of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis, and the Seminary.
General agreement was reported that the mother had the right to abortion but that the fetus, once outside the womb, had a right to life if it was viable.
The participants expressed considerable doubt that Dr. C. Edlin ot Boston was morally right in not taking action to insure the life of the fetus he removed by abortion.
The participants included Rabbi David Feldman of New York, au-thor of "Birth Control and Jew-ish Law"; Dr. Harold M. Nitkow-sky, professor of pediatrics and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Prof. Seymour Siegel of* the Seminary, chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly's committee on Jewish law and standards.
Rabbi Feldman introduced a distinction between the right to life aiid the right to be bom. He called the right to life "absolute," but held the right to be bom was relative to the life of the mother.
He contended that the fetus not yet born, though it is sacred and inviolate, is still potential rather than actual human life.
As .such, he said, "under special conditions, its right to be bom can be secondary to the mother's existing ri^ts."
He added "this very principle means that once the fetus is alive, outside the womb, its claim to life is absolute, and the physician, such as may have been the case with Dr. Edlin in Boston, would have to preserve that life,"
Rabbi Siegel said that while Jewish law. sanctioned abortion under certain circumstances, "this did not mean that a live fetus can be treated as if it were a mere piece of tissue.
"Because the fetus is endowed with potential life, it has a right to our bias for life."
He said that this did not mean that all experiments on fetuses "are morally prohibited. If the experiment is meant to enhance the life of the mother, if it does not have any discernible harm on the fetus, then it could certainly be carried out."
Rabbi Siegel said that criteria for determining the death of a. fetus should be the same as that , applied to human individuals, that is, the cessation of such life systems as heart beat and brain waves.
He said he felt that even if the fetus is non-viable, that is, less than 24 weeks old, "the fact that it is alive should make us exercise our bias toward life in relation to it.
"This would mean that experimentation on the fetus would be severely limited by the acceptable canons of medicine."
Dr. Nitkowsky said that from the medical viewpoint, "ethical issues in the management of the unborn fetus revolve mainly about the issue of abortion."
He said "advances in knowledge of human genetics, which permit pre-natal diagnosis of genetic and non-genetic fetal abnormalties, now permit abortion to serve as a possible alternative to parents faced with the prospect of having a child with a lethal, serious or incompacitating genetic or non-genetic disorder."
He said that, at his hospital, mothers are provided with all possible knowledge so that they can, if they desire, terminate their pregnancy to prevent the birth of abnormal children.
He said that, "in a free society" parents have the right "to determine the qualitative as well as the quantitative size of their
Rabbi Sally Priesand records another first
NEW YORK-Opposition to her membership having either evaporated or beea outmanoeuvred. Rabbi Sally Priesand, the first woman rabbi in America, has become the first woman member of the New York Board of Rabbis.
Considerable opposition had been gathering within the Orthodox sector of the Board's membership -against Miss Priesand, a Reform rabbi who is a graduate of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
She is also associate rabbi of the Stephen S. Wise Free synagogue in Manhattan,
When it came to a vote, however. Rabbi Priesand's name appeared among a number of other proposed new members, and the list was voted upon as a whole rather than individually.
The New York Board of Rabbis includes Orthodox, Conservative and Reform .rabbis. They are
RABBI SALLY PRIESAND
members in their own ri^t and do not represent organizations.
COMPLETE 7TH TALMUD STUDY
NEW YORK-Some 5,000 Orthodox Jews gathered in Manhattan Centre here recently to mark the seventh completion of the study of the Talmud since 1923 under the "Daf Yomi" program. ~
"Daf Yomi" is Hebrew for "a page a day."
There was no structured course of study of the Talmud, Judaism's great repository of religious concepts, ethical teachings and legends until 52 years ago. Then at the International Congress of Agudas Israel in Vienna in 1923,
Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Galina, Poland, later of Lublin, proposed devoting a day to the study of a single "daf' - two sides of'one page - of Talmud.
In that way, Jews involved in the Daf Yomi program still under the auspices of the'Aguda, all over the world are united through their study of identical pages of the Talmud.
The Talmud consists of 2,340 folios, requiiing about seven and one-third years to complete.
JCNS.
families."
He expressed opposition to the Right to Life organization which, 'he said, seeks to oppose the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion by "blurring the distinction between personal or religious objections to abortion, and to achieve outright prohibition of abortion for everyone, whatever one's personal beliefs, by law and criminal sanction."
He said there was a need for fetus research but added there were still unresolved jfroblems.
Saying he agreed with those who believe "there is no immediate need to arrive at a consensus to make policy decisions" on such research, he said "options must be kept open and discussions by religious and medical leaders be encouraged."
TORONTO — The Canadian Union of Jewish Students has received a grant from the Department of Secretary of State to research and publish a resource. catalogue for the Canadian Jewish Community.
This catalogue is a directory of information. for community organizers. It includes listings of community â– organizations, community services, publications, films, artists, poets, writers, drama groups, folk - dancing groups, musicians and speakers.
Work on this project began in early May and will continue throu^ the summer till the end of September. The catalogue's editors, Yaacov Stettin and Jack Eisner, are presently collecting information and preparing the publications production. Individuals and organizations
from across ttie country are cooperating in tiiis endeavor of producing the first concise information directory for the Canadian Jewish Conimunity.
Organizations and/or individuals who would like to contribute information and graphics are asked to contact the CUJS office at 750 Spadina Ave., Toronto, Ont. M5S 2J2, telephone (416) 967-1603.
The Canadian Union of Jewish Students is the national umbrella organization for Jewish university student organizations throughout Canada.
It is an autonomous organization receiving its funds from individuals and organizations in the community and through special government grants.
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