Medical advances mean that treatments which pose complex ethical questions are being developed all the time, and the law is often required to provide solutions that are both legally sound and morally and ethically sensitive. Different legal systems deal with these questions in different ways and, in this talk, Danny Sinclair will discuss how Israeli Law and the Israeli Supreme Court have addressed such sensitive issues as patient autonomy, the medical treatment of the terminally ill, assisted reproduction and the separation of conjoined twins when only one can live. The focus of the talk will be on the way the Court’s deliberations and Knesset legislation seek to combine both traditional Halakhah and secular liberalism. He will also comment on the approach taken by the United Kingdom courts to the dilemma of the conjoined twins from the perspective of Jewish Law.
Danny Sinclair is an ordained rabbi and was appointed Minister of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation for three years in the 1980s, where he and his wife Debbie made an enormous impact on the community, particularly on its younger members. He subsequently became Principal of Jews’ College, London before returning to Israel to pursue an academic career. Danny specialises in Jewish Law and Bio-Medical Law and is Professor Emeritus of Law at the CMAS Law School, Rishon Lezion.
Edinburgh Jewish Literary Society 