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(All Human Life has Infinite Value) - Coggle Diagram
All Human Life has Infinite Value
All human life is of equal value, and no one life is more valuable or sacred than another life. All human life has value in the image of God. No one should take another life. Although respect for human life is not regarded as an unqualified value in Judaism, it is nevertheless, a supreme value as human beings have been created in the image and likeness GOD
Sacred Text
'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heaven and over the animals and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.' - Genesis 1:26
“Whoever destroys a single life is regarded as having destroyed the entire world, and whoever saves a single life is regarded as having rescued the entire world” (Jerusalem Talmud 4:5 or Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 – two different ways of writing the source)
“You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13 - Commandment #6 )
“A dying person is considered as a living being in all matters.” (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 339:1)
“He that fatally strikes a man shall be put to death” (Exodus 21:12)
“So God created humankind in his image” (Genesis 1:27)
SCHOLAR
“A man should aim to maintain physical health and vigour in order that his soul may be upright, in a condition to know God” (Maimonides, quoted in Elliot Dorff, The Jewish Tradition: Religious Beliefs and Healthcare Decisions)
Human beings are 'duty bound to violate any other law in order to save human life (short of committing murder, incest or public idolatry)'. - Gary Goldsand
BIOETHICAL EXAMPLE
Abortion
The sanctity of life applies in Judaism - Abortion is not permissable, except in a justafiable case, such as the mother's life is at risk -
pikuach nefesh
takes precedent
Duty to save a life: the baby is considered a
rodef
- a pursuer, chasing after the mother with the intent to kill her
Deut. 25:12 states not to have pity for the life of an aggressor (rodef).
embryo is "regarded as one pursuing her and trying to kill her" - Maimonides, MT, Hilkhot Rotzeah 1.9
If during labour the woman's life takes precedent
Talmud: "for her life comes before (the life of the foetus)"(Mishnah Ohalot 7:6)
"once the head has come forth, it may not be harmed because it is considered born"(Rabbi Sholomo Yitzchaki)
Variants
Orthodox
Abortion is not permissible in any case
EFRAT in Israel- international Organisation for saving Babies - Mishnah: "Whoever destroys one life is as if he destroyed a whole world"
Conservative
More leniant and generally accept abortion in some circumstances such as rape or the mother's mental health is at threat. This is because psychiatric threat are viewed equal to physical threats
The national Council of Jewish Women: establish some of the first birth control clinics across the country, considers reproductive rights as a cornerstone issue - publicly condemned the strict abortion bans recently handed down in USA states of Alabama and Mississippi in 2019
Foetal abnormality is not viewed as justification for abortion - it is not human to determine if the life with a congenital abnormality has less value than another - unless, this abnormality will adversely affect the mother's mental health
When abortion laws were liberalised in America in 2018, the Rabbinical Council of America stated: “Jewish law opposes abortion, except in cases of danger to the mother,” stating there is “no sanction to permit abortion”.