[Vision2020] The Fetus as a Person

[Ralph Nielsen]

When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a  
miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible  
shall be fined according as the woman's husband may exact from him,  
the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage ensues, the  
penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand  
for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. (Exodus  
21:22-25 New Jewish Publication Society translation).

A footnote in the Jewish Study Bible explains: Halakhic exegesis  
infers that, since the punishment is monetary rather than execution,  
the unborn fetus is not considered a living person and feticide is  
not murder. (Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press, 2004).

The above information is especially for those who desire to live  
biblically.

Ralph