Health & Wellness

Wine is an essential part of major Jewish rituals — but the Torah is also wary of the dangers of over-consumption.

Jewish law mandates a healthful lifestyle.

Four texts dealing with non-traditional forms of insemination may--or may not--serve as meaningful precedents for the contemporary debate.

Despite some legal and ethical concerns, single women should not be prohibited from becoming pregnant with donor sperm.

The major codes of Jewish law forbid actions that hasten death, but some allow the removal of impediments to death.

The misguided belief that one needs all body parts intact to be resurrected may contribute to the poor rate of organ donation--even for Jews with otherwise untraditional beliefs.

Sometimes there is a conflict between the mandate to save lives and the mandate to avoid health risks.

Jewish views on organ donation are overridden by a single halakhic (legal) concept: pikuach nefesh—the Jewish obligation to save lives.

After learning the results of an experiment involving a decapitated sheep, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach decided to permit organ donations.

Some worry that the discovery of "Jewish" genetic diseases will negatively affect the image and treatment of Jews.

Most (but not all) rabbinic authorities consider "partial birth abortion" on the same terms as other abortions.

In Judaism, the question of when "ensoulment" takes place is both unanswerable and irrelevant to the issue of abortion.