Related Terms
Bioethics and the Jewish culture; Jewish bioethics
Jewish bioethics deals with major moral, religious, and legal issues for communal forms of Judaism in modern medicine. Each issue is described biologically and medically, related to issues in traditional rabbinic law, and then discussed by reference to leading contemporary rabbis in different contemporary Jewish religious movements, notably Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative (noting differences between the seven main groups of communal Jewish life – the Ashkenazi, Roman, North African, Kurdish, Near Eastern, Yemenite, and Ethiopian – as well as some numerically significant minorities – the Lemba of North Africa, the B’nai Menashe of India, and the Crypto Jews of South America).
The discussion of bioethics is guided at the most universal level by four general principles of western ethics and eight general principles of Jewish ethics. The western principles are (1) Maximize freedom of patient choice (Autonomy), (2) Cause no...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bleich, J. D. (1998). Bioethical dilemmas. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House.
Dorff, E. N. (1998). Matters of life and death. Philadelphia and Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society.
Feldman, D. (1968). Birth control in Jewish law. New York: New York University Press.
Jakobovits, I. (1959). Jewish medical ethics. New York: Bloch Publishing Co.
Rosner, F. (1986). Modern medicine and Jewish ethics. Hoboken, NJ/New York: Ktav Publishing House/Yeshiva University Press.
Wahrman, M. Z. (2002). Brave new Judaism: when science and scripture collide. Lebanon, NH: Brandeis University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Samuelson, N.M. (2013). Bioethics in Judaism. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_1518
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_1518
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8264-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8265-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law