Toras HaChaim: A New Torah Column

What if the person has full intent to not only take the action, but also cause the harmful result. However, in this case, the person has the wrong information, so he thinks that he is doing something good, when in fact, he is about to do something very bad.

The obvious question arises: what changes once the fetus leaves the womb? Why is it permitted to sacrifice the fetus to save the mother while the fetus is in utero, but the moment the fetus leaves the womb, we can't choose one life over another?

It has often been assumed that this debate is fundamentally centered around the very question of whether a fetus is considered to be a full nefesh or not.

The reason one receives the death penalty for killing someone is because of middah k'neged middah, measure for measure. When one violates a prohibited act, they receive exactly that which they inflicted upon someone else.

As a fetus grows and develops, it's possible that it becomes human, or at least more human, even if that is not originally the case when it is first conceived as a zygote.

The goal of this column is to help you think about the spectrum of a topic in Torah and see the truth within every opinion of the sugya.