Fertility and Jewish Law

by Irshai, Ronit; Linsider, Joel A.

• ISBN13: 9781611682403
• ISBN10: 1611682401
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-12
• Publisher: Brandeis Univ

Summary

This book presents, from the perspective of feminist jurisprudence and feminist and liberal bioethics, a complete study of Jewish law (halakhah) on contemporary reproductive issues such as birth control, abortion, and assisted fertility. Irshai examines these issues to probe gender-based values that underlie the interpretations and determinations reached by modern practitioners of halakhah. Her primary goal is to tell, through common halakhic tools, a different halakhic story, one that takes account of the female narrative and its missing perspective.

Author Biography

Ronit Irshai is an assistant professor in the gender studies program at Bar Ilan University and a lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is also a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction - Epistemology, Jurisprudence, and Halakhah: A Feminist Critique

Sex Without Procreation

"Be Fruitful and Multiply"

Birth Control and Family Planning

Halakhic Rulings on Abortion: A Historical Survey from the Rabbinic to the Modern Period

Abortion in Contemporary Halakhic Rulings

Procreation Without Sex

Artificial Insemination, In Vitro Fertilization, and Surrogacy in Liberal and Radical Feminist Approaches

Artificial Insemination, In Vitro Fertilization, and Surrogacy: Halakhic Analysis

Afterword: The Gender Project in the Philosophy of Halakhah as an Exercise in Criticism

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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