Jewish View on Abortion
The Jewish view on abortion is rational and middle of the road. It takes into account a person's quest for spiritual greatness, and also the realities of everyday life; these two aspects of a person's life often come into conflict with one another. Many people aspire to be great spiritually, however, what they face everyday can come into conflict with this aspiration. Many of the decisions that people are forced to make in everyday life can diminish their spirituality, whether conscious or unconscious. In the case of abortion, many women decide to abort an unborn fetus without the proper spiritual guidance and secular counseling, and this choice can destroy their aspirations of spiritual greatness. The Aish rabbi says that a woman has free choice over her body, but that there are limits to this choice. A woman may have free choice over her own body, however, a woman does not have the right to commit murder, which many people deem abortion to be. Jewish law says that a baby becomes a full-fledged human being when the head of the baby emerges from the mother's womb, however, before this the fetus is considered a partial life. The Aish rabbi says that a person is not permitted to destroy a partial life, and this is exemp
In the Jewish faith, contraception is not acceptable, because it is believed that God does all family planning. However, birth control may be considered advisable, depending on the mother and father's physical and emotional health. A rabbi determines this need for birth control after weighing all of the deciding factors, but abortion is not considered a form of birth control. Jewish law considers a fetus a partial life, and it also says that an infant does not reach full personhood until it is thirty days old. Therefore, the fetus that is aborted by the mother is not considered a person in the Jewish faith. Also, Jewish law does not consider abortion murder because it is the termination of a partial life, not a full life. If and only if the mother's health is threatened by her pregnancy, then it is said that Jewish law requires the mother to abort the fetus. In this way, Jewish law is very different from Catholic law, which states that a fetus is considered a human upon conception, not upon birth. Whether a woman decides to have an abortion or not is a difficult decision, one that should be made based on extensive spiritual guidance and secular counseling, and if and only if the pregnancy threa
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 821
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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