Jewish Medical Ethics Before Life and Before Death
Rachel Kranson, PhD, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh; and Arielle Friedtanzer, MA, End-of-Life Consultant
Description: This workshop will explore just a few of the many ethical and legal questions that arise at the intersection of medicine and Judaism around abortion and end-of-life decision making. The presenters will offer insight based on their research and professional experience, framed by Jewish and American law.
Dr. Rachel Kranson’s presentation will focus on American Jewish leaders who strongly advocated for legal abortion between the 1970s and the turn of the twenty-first century, and will discuss why they considered reproductive rights to be an important component of their religious freedom. Their efforts to protect abortion access through the first amendment’s guarantees of religious freedom have become even more significant as the U.S. enters a post-Roe era, and reproductive rights advocates are looking for new legal avenues through which to protect reproductive care.
Arielle Friedtanzer will explore decision-making at the end of life, a topic that most Americans will face but try to put off discussing until the moment of crisis, often until it’s too late. Advanced-care planning is complicated, burdensome, and emotional for so many reasons, but understanding what Judaism has to say about withdrawing and withholding interventions, voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, or Medical Aid in Dying can shed light on some of the more tangled questions we face on death and dying in a medicalized society.
Through discussion, text study, and Q&A, we will present, wrestle with, and unpack some of the nuanced dilemmas that human beings face before life officially begins, and at the end of the human lifespan. We invite you to join us with an open mind and an eagerness to learn!
Schedule:
2-2:40 Dr. Kranson presents
2:40-2:55 Q&A
2:55-3:10 Break
3:10-3:55 Ms. Friedtanzer presents
3:55-4:10 Q&A
4:10-5pm Source Study and Q&A
Dr. Rachel Kranson’s presentation will focus on American Jewish leaders who strongly advocated for legal abortion between the 1970s and the turn of the twenty-first century, and will discuss why they considered reproductive rights to be an important component of their religious freedom. Their efforts to protect abortion access through the first amendment’s guarantees of religious freedom have become even more significant as the U.S. enters a post-Roe era, and reproductive rights advocates are looking for new legal avenues through which to protect reproductive care.
Arielle Friedtanzer will explore decision-making at the end of life, a topic that most Americans will face but try to put off discussing until the moment of crisis, often until it’s too late. Advanced-care planning is complicated, burdensome, and emotional for so many reasons, but understanding what Judaism has to say about withdrawing and withholding interventions, voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, or Medical Aid in Dying can shed light on some of the more tangled questions we face on death and dying in a medicalized society.
Through discussion, text study, and Q&A, we will present, wrestle with, and unpack some of the nuanced dilemmas that human beings face before life officially begins, and at the end of the human lifespan. We invite you to join us with an open mind and an eagerness to learn!
Schedule:
2-2:40 Dr. Kranson presents
2:40-2:55 Q&A
2:55-3:10 Break
3:10-3:55 Ms. Friedtanzer presents
3:55-4:10 Q&A
4:10-5pm Source Study and Q&A