By Elliot N. Dorff. Jewish Publication Society . The fact that the now regular advances in biomedical technology affect the lives of everybody in our society in new, unprecedented ways has made biomedical ethics a conversation in which many different voices are striving to be heard. Philosophers want to be heard in order to show others that theoretical ethics offers clarity and direction for dealing with real moral dilemmas. Theologians want to show others that their religious traditions speak to the concerns of the present.
Jewish theologians are no different.
Indeed, Jews have a special historical need to show themselves and others that the Jewish tradition can thrive outside any ghetto of time or place. Elliot N. Dorff is rector of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, a long time member of Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and an official representative of Conservative Judaism on a number of U.S. government commissions-which is to say he is a leading philosopher and theologian of that major branch of contemporary Judaism. In this book, he addresses a variety of important issues in biomedical ethics from his standpoint within Conservative Judaism, a standpoint which, as he candidly notes, is sometimes not that of other members of his community. Dorff is on top of both the classical Jewish sources with their modern interpretations and the vast biomedical and legal literature, yet he is epistemically humble. He does not presume to present the Jewish point of view, which, because of Judaism's current fragmentation, is not something anyone can honestly pretend to do.