This Matter Of Abortion: The Mother's Life

There have been a significant amount of controversies going on about abortion. The argument is shaped around many questions, such as whether abortion is ethical or not, is the mother’s life more important than the child’s life, when does life begin, and the role that religion plays in abortion. Many people believe that it is not our choice to decide if a child should live or die, while others suppose that it is the mother’s choice to decide if she wants the baby to live or not because she is the one who will have to nourish and nurture it. Some say that a fetus is considered a human being at conception, while others believe that a fetus is not human until after birth. Abortion views also vary from religion to religion. For instance, in Hinduism,
Jewish laws are lenient with abortion only during the first 40 days of pregnancy, because the embryo is considered to be of low importance at that time period. Judaism forbids abortion if the mother’s reason for getting it done is due to some kind of deficiency in the fetus or because of the mother’s emotional distress. David M. Feldman in his article “This Matter of Abortion” states, “The Talmud considers defining the fetus as a rodef, an aggressor against its mother, and making that the reason why abortion to save the mother’s life is permitted” (Feldman 2). Jewish law, The Talmud, declares that abortion is permitted if the fetus is jeopardizing the mother’s life. Thus, the mother’s life is more important than the fetus’s life, so if the mother is in some kind of physical pain because of the fetus, then abortion is not considered immoral. Moreover, according to the Mishnah, “Whoever destroys one life is as if he destroyed a whole world, and whoever preserves a life is as if preserved the whole world.” If a mother aborts the fetus for unacceptable reasons, then killing a fetus will equal to destroying a whole world. In contrast, if she nourishes and nurtures the fetus, it will be equal to her saving a whole
Torah is said to have the words of God, so if a Jew follows it, he or she will have a pure soul and be a moral human being. Judaism does not consider a fetus as a separate being from the mother. A fetus is part of the mother until during childbirth. Jewish laws promote saving sanctity of human life and to preserve and save it when possible. The moral principal considerations of abortion according to Judaism are whether the fetus is a person yet, at what stage does it become a person, does the woman have the right to decide whether to get an abortion done or not, and what the possible risks are to the mother during the abortion process. According to the Halakhah laws, fetus is an innocent being without any sins and thus it is morally wrong to end a life of an innocent person. If the fetus is a person, then it has all the right of a person, including the Right To Life. Ian Kern in his article “Bioethics in Judaism” states, “There are three main Jewish bioethical principles: that human life has infinite value; that aging, illness and death are a natural part of life; and that improvement of the patient’s quality of life is a constant commitment” (Kern 2). The Torah does not allow the defilement of a dead body, but it also states that one should preserve life when possible. Hence, if organ transplants can save an ill person’s life, then it is considered ethical for