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is pursuing whom, mother-baby or baby-mother.” The Talmud Bavli 14
is explained literally “It is a heavenly act of pursuit of the mother’s
life.” Therefore, the fetus is not a pursuer. This is similar to a gentile
who pushes Reuven against a baby to kill it, where the gentile is the
SAVING THE WOUNDED pursuer and Reuven is like a stone thrown at the baby by a gentile. So,
FROM THE BATTLEFIELD too, the fetus is not a pursuer but the endangerment of the mother is
WHEN THE CHANCE OF “An act of G-d.”
115 SAVING LIVES IS VERY Rambam (Hilchos Rotze’ach 1:9) writes: It is a negative precept not
SMALL to have mercy on the life of a pursuer. Therefore, the Rabbanim de-
creed that a fetus which is endangering its mother during childbirth
may be extracted from the womb limb for limb because it has the
status of a pursuer. But once its head protrudes, one may not touch
it because we do not sacrifice one life to save another, and this is the
1 Questions Saving the wounded when chances aRe sliM nature of the world.
Rambam explains the words of the Gemara: “It is a case of Heaven-
During a war, one of our tanks took a direct hit and burst into flames. ly pursuit of the mother,” meaning that this is the nature of the world
The crew was trapped inside the tank. I estimated that chances were and not the fetus’s initiative. Therefore, one may not kill it. On the
almost nil that any of them were still alive. As the regiment com- other hand, if a minor is pursuing his friend to kill him, the pursuer
mander I ordered the armored personnel carrier (APC) that handles may be killed to save the life of the pursued. This pursuit is not caused
the evacuation of the wounded, which includes a rescue team and by the nature of the world, and therefore, even though he is not a bar
medical personnel, to rescue the crew from the tank. When the APC da’as, we kill him in order to save the pursued.
approached the tank, a strong fire erupted and the APC was hit and It seems to me that it is even permitted to kill a minor who is
its entire crew was killed. May Hashem avenge their blood. waving a loaded pistol and aiming it at his friend, not knowing that
I have strong pangs of conscience, and my questions are: his act will kill his friend. A fetus that protruded its head from the
womb during childbirth, endangering its mother’s life would also be
1. Did I follow the halacha by instructing the APC to rescue the killed, were it not for the fact that we consider this a “heavenly act of
victimes, even though the chances of their being rescued were pursuit.” He would be killed despite the fact that he has no idea he is
small, and the danger to the rescuers was great? My question is killing his mother.
not only about my pangs of conscience regarding this case, but
also about what to do in the future in a similar case, G-d forbid. Therefore, it seems to me that it is permissible to shoot down the
pilot who is pursuing his brethren, in spite of the fact that the pilot
[A similar question arose when a physician saw a mortal- does not know that he is erroneously killing Jews, according to the
ly-wounded soldier lying on the battlefield in an exposed area of Talmud Bavli.
enemy fire. The physician wanted to endanger himself to reach Even according to the Talmud Yerushalmi, which posits that the
the soldier. The question was: Is it permissible to endanger one- reason that we do not kill the fetus is because we do not know who
self to save a wounded person, when the chances of success are is pursuing who – the mother the baby, or the baby the mother – the

390 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Saving the wounded when chances are slim 2 399