[quote]Jewbacca wrote:
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
In rabbinic tradition, does ending the life of an unborn baby carry the same moral weight as ending the life of an infant? Is the fetus’ life, in other words, as valuable as the infant’s, and what is the reasoning behind the answer?
[/quote]
Well, a life is a life, and protecting life trumps all the other mitzvahs.
So a child in the womb is no more or less a life than a child outside the womb. No arbitrary distinction is made between a child in the womb and a child outside — that’s from English common law when a child was not considered “alive” until he or she took her first breath — and that is from the pagan practices related to lineage and succession.
Indeed, the only time abortion is permitted in Judaism is when the mother’s life is in mortal peril – and, at such time, the life of the mother is considered superior, I think largely because the death of the mother so often results in the death of the child. More of a triage decision than theological in my view, but it’s very clearly that way in the Talmud. (Indeed, in that circumstance abortion is mandated by Jewish law.)
So, I still ask my original question to your question:
Q: How valuable is a life?
A: To whom? G-d? The child? The father? The mother? Society at large? A purchaser of a slave? Who?[/quote]
I can’t speak for the Almighty, but if I were the creator of a universe, I would probably value my creations pretty highly, particularly the ones that most resembled myself. I am not saying that this is the actual case, only what I would do if it were me.
The parents of course would value the child more highly than anyone else would, and more than they value anyone else including themselves. Or at least perhaps they should. Often they don’t.
Society at large values the child relative to how they value his family. Later they will value him based on what he is able to contribute.
And actually, the purchaser of a slave is probably the most helpful of all in determining an objective value of life.
I will look through Leviticus and Deuteronomy later on, as I can’t recall any passages in the Torah that might give guidelines for a fair valuation of a pregnant female slave versus a non-pregnant one. I imagine that for obvious reasons a virgin slave girl would command a higher price than a girl or woman who was not a virgin, but it occurs to me that buying a pregnant woman would be like getting two slaves in one. Surely the one should expect to pay more for a mother and her infant child than for a pregnant woman, but just how much more should indicate the perceived value of a born vs an unborn life.
If only we knew what percentage one buying a pregnant slave might expect to pay above the price of a non-pregnant slave (and below the price of a mother and her infant) of equivalent age, health, status and sexual history. Then we would know, in monetary terms at least, the approximate value of the life in the womb, at least as perceived by the ancients.
