Medical Halakhah

A Modern [Genetically] Blended Family

Mitochondrial DNA in Halakhah Media was abuzz this week with the news of the successful birth of child conceived via…

Oversimplification and Unilateral Pronouncements about Abortion Distort the Authentic Jewish Perspective

Abortion is a topic that Jews don’t tend to speak about very openly. Similar to Hilkhot Niddah, which relate to…

Balancing The Needs Of The Community And Defining Equity

Review of Recent Medical Halakhah Assia 119-120, May 2021 In a true testament to the influence of Jewish Law on…

Fetal Cell Lines Pose No Halakhic Problem in Vaccine Development

There’s been quite a media buzz about the ethical propriety of using the newly FDA authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine.…

The Halakhic Mandate for COVID Vaccines and the Prohibition of Spreading Misinformation About Them

At this point, many of the greatest Poskim have all endorsed receiving the new Covid vaccinations. Considering that the newly…

The Role of the Public in Halakhic Considerations of Public Health (Part 3)

PARSHAH PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN MEDICINE: EIKEV Apropos of our previous discussions of differences between individual and public health, this anecdote…

The Role of the Public in Halakhic Considerations of Public Health (Part 2)

PARSHAH PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN MEDICINE: HUKKAT-BALAK In our previous post, we argued that public considerations of health can and do…

The Role of the Public in Halakhic Considerations of Public Health (Part 1)

PARSHAH PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN MEDICINE: HUKKAT-BALAK With so much of the world focused on responding to and dealing with the…

Potential Solution for Priestly Predicament? The Possibility of Kohanim Studying Medicine

PARSHAH PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN MEDICINE: EMOR The Torah prohibits male Kohanim from contracting tum’at meit (corpse tum’ah). Tum’at meit is…

Organ allocation in Halakhah: Is it proper to give priority to a prior donor even though somebody else might be sicker?

Parshah Perspectives on Modern Medicine: Terumah Some of the challenges of trying to at least loosely tie medical halakhah issues…