Rabbinic Literature
The Torah says little about the status or treatment of the embryo or fetus. Indeed, only one crucial Biblical law establishes a rule about the killing of an embryo or fetus. Specifically, Exodus 21:22-25 states:
When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman so that her children depart (yatsa), but no other damage (ason) ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman's husband may exact from him, the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Under Jewish Biblical exegesis, abortion is not deemed murder. Instead, unintentional abortion is a form of damages subject to monetary compensation. Conversely, the killing of the mother—the other damage (ason)—is murder.
Read more about this topic: Judaism And Abortion
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
““If Steam has done nothing else, it has at least added a whole new Species to English Literature ... the booklets—the little thrilling romances, where the Murder comes at page fifteen, and the Wedding at page forty—surely they are due to Steam?”
“And when we travel by electricity—if I may venture to develop your theory—we shall have leaflets instead of booklets, and the Murder and the Wedding will come on the same page.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)