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May 16, 2018, 6:59 PM

Dismissing Life as a Value – The Sad Story of Alfie Evans

From the calm funeral earlier this week, you wouldn’t know that Alfie Evan’s last few days of life were surrounded by loud protests and emotional turmoil all over social media. A 23 month old toddler, Alfie Evans died two short...

Aug 7, 2017, 7:15 AM

Shouldn’t parents know best?

There's lousy precedent in Charlie Gard's parents not being allowed to care for their 11-month-old as they saw fit

Dec 30, 2014, 11:14 PM

Circumcision: A Matter of Body and Spirit

Jewish Perspectives on Bioethics As it turns out, circumcision may be good for you. And not just spiritually. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) recently released draft guidelines for physicians to counsel parents on the health benefits of circumcision and encourage...

Sep 3, 2014, 9:29 AM

Preventing Passivity – It’s On All of Us

Jewish Perspectives on Bioethics When Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali were kidnapped, many of us scoured the internet to learn even a little bit about what happened. But something strange happened. There was nothing to read and no radio broadcasts to...

Jan 31, 2014, 1:22 AM

Marlise Muñoz: When the corpse is carrying a fetus

Examining the bioethical questions that arise from the tragic and extreme case of Marlise Muñoz

Jan 20, 2014, 7:21 PM

The courage of affirming life: Ariel Sharon’s legacy

Jewish bioethics teach that life itself is of infinite value; sometimes choosing it over death is the greater show of courage

Dec 27, 2013, 9:21 AM

The many ways we die

A Jewish perspective on the bioethical questions surrounding Jahi McMath, who has been declared brain dead

Dec 2, 2013, 9:03 PM

The myth of Jewish religious exemption from vaccination

Jewish Perspectives on Bioethics It’s a sad reality that discussions of vaccines start with reassuring the reader that vaccines do not cause autism or any other disorder. It’s sad because our focus should really be that vaccines save lives. The simple...

Jul 9, 2013, 7:22 AM

Jewish perspectives on bioethics: Allocating organs

Sarah Murnaghan recently made headlines as a ten-year-old suffering from terminal cystic fibrosis and most likely not going to receive a life saving lung transplant. Being less than 12 years old, she was only eligible to receive a transplant from...

Jun 4, 2013, 7:00 AM

Jewish perspectives on bioethics: Taking risks for prevention

The decision to undergo mastectomy in order to reduce risk poses some interesting bioethical question for Jewish law

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About Me

Rabbi David Shabtai, MD is the Rabbi of the Sephardic Minyan at Boca Raton Synagogue and the author of Defining the Moment: Understanding Brain Death in Halakhah [amzn.com/0615560482]. All opinions are his own.