Contemporary Jewish Law Research Articles

The influence of Jewish law on Israeli regulation of sperm banks

Modern fertility technologies of artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization raise several legal and religious questions on the use of donor gametes. In Israel, sperm donations remain minimally regulated and questions that are a matter of public policy, such as anonymity and determination of paternity, are regulated solely by internal government directives. Scholars including myself maintain that the current situation needs revision. Due to the potent effect of such regulation on issues of personal status, it is crucial to address questions of Jewish law that will be influenced by any proposed sperm bank regulation, since the answers will affect large sectors of the Israeli population. In particular, we will raise concerns unique to Jewish law that could jeopardize the status of offspring and their ability to marry in accordance with Jewish law, and we will examine creative arguments found within contemporary Jewish law to address those concerns. We will demonstrate that Jewish law includes a range of opinions in this area, from lenient to stringent, and propose solutions that can accommodate that range while at the same time safeguarding the best interests of children conceived through artificial insemination by donor (AID). Considering the foregoing analysis, we will evaluate regulatory schemes from a proposed 2016 Sperm Bank Law, such as: creation of a (privacy-protected) state registry of the identities of sperm donors, sperm recipients and offspring of AID that preempts incestuous marriages or cohabitation, and establishment of an identity-release track for sperm donation. Les technologies de fécondation modernes, parmi lesquelles l’insémination artificielle et la fécondation in vitro, posent de nombreuses questions légales et religieuses, concernant entre autres l’utilisation de gamètes de donneurs anonymes. À l’heure actuelle, les dons de sperme, y compris certaines questions cruciales en matière de politiques publiques, telles que l’anonymat et la détermination de la paternité, ne sont réglementées en Israël que par des directives gouvernementales internes. Cette situation doit être révisée. En raison des enjeux liés au statut personnel, il est essentiel d’analyser certaines questions de droit hébraïque sur lesquelles toute réglementation des banques de spermes pourrait avoir de graves répercussions, puisque les réponses à ces questions affecteront une grande partie de la population israélienne. Plus précisément, nous traiterons certains aspects spécifiques au droit hébraïque liés à l’anonymat du donneur, qui pourraient compromettre le statut des progénitures et leur capacité de se marier selon la loi juive. Nous examinerons les arguments novateurs avancés par certains décisionnaires contemporains afin de résoudre ces problèmes. Nous montrerons que la loi juive inclue tout un éventail d’opinions à ce sujet, des plus laxistes aux plus strictes, et soutiendrons qu’il est possible de proposer des solutions qui concilient cet éventail d’opinions tout en défendant les intérêts des enfants conçus par insémination artificielle avec don de sperme (IAD). À la lumière de cette analyse, nous évaluerons les schémas régulateurs de la proposition de loi présentée par le ministère israélien de la Santé en 2016 concernant les banques de sperme, dont : la création d’un registre national de donneurs de sperme, de receveurs de sperme et de progénitures IAD (avec protection de la vie privée) qui préviendrait les unions incestueuses, ainsi que l’instauration d’une possibilité de dons de sperme non anonyme.

From Imago Dei in the Jewish-Christian Traditions to Human Dignity in Contemporary Jewish Law

The article surveys and analyzes the roles in Judaism of the value of imago Dei/human dignity, especially in bioethical contexts. Two main topics are discussed. The first is a comparative analysis of imago Dei as an anthropological and ethical concept in Jewish and Western thought (Christianity and secular European values). The Jewish tradition highlights the human body and especially its procreative function and external appearance as central to imago Dei. The second is the role of imago Dei as a moral value relative to others. In rabbinic Judaism, respect for human dignity is not the primary moral maxim; it is secondary to the value of neighborly love and sometimes to other moral laws and values.

Dealing With Death in the Jewish Legal Tradition

The main theme of the article is the tension between the obligation to preserve life, and the value of timely death. This tension is resolved by distinguishing between precipitating death, which is prohibited, and merely removing an impediment to it, which is permitted. In contemporary Jewish law, a distinction is made between therapy, which may be discontinued, and life-support, which must be maintained until the establishment of death. Another theme is that of “soft” patient autonomy, and its role in dealing with the dying in both traditional Jewish law and Israel’s Terminal Patient Law, 2005. Preventing suffering in relation to a dying person, and praying for his or her death are also discussed in the article.

KEVOD HATZIBBUR: TOWARDS A CONTEXTUALIST HISTORY OF WOMEN'S ROLE IN TORAH READING

This article suggests a novel approach to the problem of how the talmudic concept of kevod hatzibbur (the dignity of the community) should be understood and applied in contemporary Jewish law. The methodology of historical contextualism—not commonly used in halakhic discourse—is employed to reconstruct the historical meanings of kevod hatzibbur in distinctive historical contexts.

Nonaltruistic kidney donations in contemporary Jewish law and ethics.

In 2000, the Consensus Statement on the Live Organ Donor reported that "direct financial compensation for an organ from a living donor remains controversial and illegal in the United States" and took note of the position of the Transplantation Society that "Organs and tissue should be given without commercial consideration or commercial profit." Christian authorities insist that organ donors must not accrue economic advantage, and "selling" organs deprives the donation of its ethical quality. The writings of major contemporary authorities of Jewish law and ethics whose halakhic positions on bioethical issues are regularly considered by Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform ethicists were reviewed. Their positions on this issue were contrasted with those of various contemporary secular and religious authorities. These Jewish authorities reject the notion that generosity and charity, rather than monetary gain and greed, must serve as the exclusive basis for donation of functioning organs. Although nonaltruistic sale of kidneys may be theoretically ethical, ultimately its ethical status in Jewish ethics and law is inextricably connected to solving a series of pragmatic programs, such as creating a system that ensures that potential vendors and donors are properly informed and not exploited. Lacking such arrangements, ethical nonaltruistic kidney donations remain but a theoretical possibility.

Assisted reproduction in contemporary Jewish law and ethics.

This article recapitulates and extends a discussion of the position of halakhic Judaism (traditional Jewish law and ethics) on various issues that relate to assisted reproduction, including genetic and legal relationships, disposal of untransplanted embryos, embryo tissue research, multifetal pregnancy reduction, preimplantation genetic screening and sex selection and donor gametes.

Byron L. Sherwin. In Partnership With God: Contemporary Jewish Law and Ethics. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1990. xiv, 290 pp.

Byron L. Sherwin. In Partnership With God: Contemporary Jewish Law and Ethics. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1990. xiv, 290 pp.

Preimplantation sex selection and genetic screening in contemporary Jewish law and ethics.

Preimplantation sex selection and genetic screening in contemporary Jewish law and ethics.

In Partnership with God: Contemporary Jewish Law and Ethics (review)

In Partnership with God: Contemporary Jewish Law and Ethics (review)

Multifetal pregnancy reduction and disposal of untransplanted embryos in contemporary Jewish law and ethics

Recent responsa (rabbinical rulings) on multifetal pregnancy reduction and disposal of untransplanted embryos indicate that the position of contemporary Jewish law and ethics on these specific issues differs strongly from the Instruction of the Roman Catholic Church and is closer to the view adopted by the Ethics Committee of the American Fertility Society.

Multifetal pregnancy reduction and disposal of untransplanted embryos in contemporary Jewish law and ethics

Recent responsa (rabbinical rulings) on multifetal pregnancy reduction and disposal of untransplanted embryos indicate that the position of contemporary Jewish law and ethics on these specific issues differs strongly from the <i>Instruction</i> of the Roman Catholic Church and is closer to the view adopted by the Ethics Committee of the American Fertility Society.

Jewish Ethics as Theological Ethics

2 SHOFAR JEWISH ETHICS AS THEOLOGICAL ETHICS Byron L. Sherwin Byron L. Sherwin is Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Verson Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Mysticism at Spertus College of Judaica. The author of 12 books and over 70 articles and monographs in Jewish ethics, mysticism, law philosophy, education , and Holocaust studies, Dr. Sherwin has most recently written In Partnership with God: Contemporary Jewish law and Ethics. Professor Sherwin is President of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association. Confronted as we are with the inevitable reality of human mortality, conscious of individual finitude when set against the infinite plentitude of creation, our quest to locate a source of meaning and purpose becomes increasingly vital. Reflection upon the ultimate questions of human existence causes us to pause to consider how to infuse meaning into the blink of eternity that is each human life. Few statements pose the problem as poignantly as this citation from the writings of the seventeenth-century philosopher, Blaise Pascal: When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and know me not, I am frightened, and I am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and this time bee~ allotted to me? The eternal silence of those infinite spaces frightens me. The transient nature of life is also keenly recognized by classical Jewish literature . For example, in the High Holiday liturgy, we read: The human origin is dust and its end is dust. ... The human creature is like a clay vessel, easily broken, like withering grass, like a fading flower, IBiaise Pascal, Pensees, para. 68. Trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (London: Penguin, 1966), p. 48. Volume 9, No.1 Fall1990 3 like a wandering ~oud, like a fleeting breeze, like scattered dust, like an ephemeral dream. In a similar vein, a midrash comments on the verse in Psalms (144:4), "One's days are like a passing shadow," as follows: "What kind of shadow? If life is like a shadow cast by a wall, it endures.... Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Aha: Life is like a bird that flies past, and its shadow flies past with it. But Samuel said: Life is like the shadow of a bee which has no substance at all." 3 For Jewish tradition, the encounter with the tenuous nature of human life, with the certainty of human mortality, is not meant to be an invitation to morbidity, but a collision with realities that offer an opportunity to confront the quest for and the question of human purpose and meaning. Since life is a blind date with an uncertain future, each moment is considered a summons to begin or to continue the project of creating the ultimate work of artone 's own life. Hillel said, "If not now, when?" Commenting on this statement, a medieval Jewish writer observed that Hillel did not say, "If not today, when?" but "If not now, when?" because "even today is in doubt regarding whether one will survive or not, for at any instant one can die.,,4 Consequently, "one cannot wait even a day or two to exert oneself in the pursuit of human fulfillment .,,5 This attitude is similar to that articulated by Benjamin Franklin who advised, "Since you are not sure of a moment, throw not away an hour." In his famous treatise Common Sense, another "Founding Father" of the United States, Thomas Paine, wrote, "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." An identical statement might have been penned by anyone of the authors of anyone of the works that comprise Jewish ethical literature. Like Thomas Paine, they knew that building one's life as a work of art is the product of continuous deliberate choice and unstinting personal effort. In the art of living each individual is an apprentice. As Moses Maimonides observed, "It is impossible...