"I wrote a letter on abortion that you responded to in the convention center. I would like to apologize for the inflammatory nature of my comments. I was trying to find out just where you stood on the issue and why. In the future I will take care not to be offensive. I did not mean to seem to be laying down the law, I was not trying to use them to prove my point but more to show you where I was coming from. These are verses that cause me to beleive what I beleive. As I learn to understand them properly my beleifs may change. Thank you for helping me to learn.

    I'm pleased to hear it.

   Melâkhim Beit 14.6 quotes Devârim 24.16 as its authority.  So we can go directly to Tôrâh to understand both of these pesuqim (verses).  To follow this, you'll need to get up and running with your Ivrit (Hebrew) fonts in your email as well as your browser.  (Follow the link at the bottom of our Home Page.):

I am able to read the hebrew in email now.

(lô-yumetu âvôt al-bânim, u-vânim lô-yumetu al-avôt; ish be-khetô yumâtu; shall not be caused-to-die fathers for sons, and sons shall not be caused-to-die for fathers; a man in his [own] misstep shall die).  (You can find pronunciation helps for these vowels in NQ, the Netzarim Quarter' [of Yerushâlayim of the heavens], our web site.)

    In the case of abortion, the sperm and/or egg isn't being prevented from insemination because of the father's crime.  It is the woman's right to govern her own life and to give her consent when she will bear a child, not the father's crime, which is considered.  In the case of a rape, assuming measures are taken promptly, the choice is between forcing a woman to conceive and/or bear a child to which she never consented, on the one hand, weighed against the potential life of some unidentified sperm (out of millions) and an egg, on the other hand.

    Anything from a car accident to a health problem may cause a premature birth.  The viability of the fetus, unassisted, in the case of birth at any given point during pregnancy is a defining factor.  Medical advances which enhance the doctor's ability to save much earlier premature babies, while admirable and to be used when needed, don't affect this Biblical criterion.  There are only two ways to assess the viability of a premature birth: the best evaluation of scientists and doctors or leave the infant unassisted and see if it dies.  No compassionate person would choose the latter.

    The Ivrit (Hebrew) term for murder (the verb) is חצר (râtzakh; he murdered), which, you can see, isn't the same as תומ (mut; to die), the verb used in the pâsuq you cited.

   חצר (râtzakh) applies only to human beings, not pre-viable embryos or fetuses.  Pre-viable is defined here as not viable without exceptional medical assistance.  Therefore, allegations that someone is "murdering" an embryo or fetus that isn't yet viable aren't based on Tôrâh.  You must keep in mind what Tôrâh was written about.  At that time, babies were considered pre-viable for 8 days AFTER birth.  Infants that didn't survive 8 days weren't considered to have become a viable person, and were buried unnamed.  That's why boys are circumcised – and named – only on the 8^th day.  (Girls are named in Beit ha-K’nêsêt on the Shabât following their birth.)

    Consequently, one cannot validly argue that the Bible's commands about murder apply to a pre-viable embryo or fetus.

    There are, of course, Judaic arguments other than murder forwarded against abortion.  My daughter recently did a report on Tay-Sach's disease (in Hebrew, of course) in which she found that some rabbis recommend 40 days after conception as the cut-off for doing an abortion.

    Concerning your reference to Melâkhim Beit 1.2-4, though there are many quack 'healers' around, one may not equate any bona fide medical doctor with the priest of a pagan idol.  That would constitute môtziyei sheim râ (purveyors of slanderous-gossip, which is prohibited in Tôrâh).

    Therefore, these two pesuqim only partially support your views.  This means that you should conform your views to the Biblical definitions.