{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.024893746205221615, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.7622377622377625, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Question of Context: A Response to Fred Rosner

Let me begin by expressing my appreciation for Fred Rosner’s lucid and informative article, “Jewish Medical Ethics.” Bioethics journals have long had a solid presence of Protestant and Catholic thinkers; until recently, there were few contributions from the Jewish perspective. Rosner has for some time been a pioneer in this area. What follows is truly a response rather than a criticism, as I attempt to contextualize rather than to disagree with Rosner’s work. If I do have a disagreement, it is with Rosner’s frequent use of such phrases as “the Jewish attitude” (emphasis mine). In fact, as I am sure Rosner would agree, there are many attitudes in Judaism toward every topic he has covered. To give one example, Reform Jewish organizations have gone on record in favor of the most liberal attitude toward a woman’s right to abortion. To give another, all studies report that American Jews are among the most faithful users of a wide variety of contraceptives, in contrast to Rosner’s claim that “the Jewish attitude toward contraception by any method is a nonpermissive one if no medical or psychiatric threat to the mother or child exists.” Thus, if one looks at religious movements within Judaism, or simply at the behavior of American Jews, one is reminded of the necessity to read Rosner’s article with a critical eye that is always cognizant of the vigorous diversity in American Judaism today. I will organize my response under four headings. In each case, my goal will be to introduce readers to some voices and perspectives that are missing from Rosner’s account of Jewish bioethics.