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"To walk between the raindrops": the role of rabbis in bioethical decision-making : Orthodox and Reform Jewish practice in the United States and Israel

Werren, Sarah. "To walk between the raindrops": the role of rabbis in bioethical decision-making : Orthodox and Reform Jewish practice in the United States and Israel. 2024, Doctoral Thesis, University of Basel, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Abstract

Bioethics as an interdisciplinary examination of dilemmas regarding all forms of life began in the United States of the postwar era. As medical science advanced, medical interventions became increasingly technical and intellectual resources outside of the medical profession were pertinent to deal with new arising questions. Since issues of life, death, and social justice were questions long pondered by philosophers and theologians, their approaches to answering those unprecedented problems became an integral part of the new evaluation of medical practice. Thus, thinkers and scholars from all branches of Judaism have long participated in intellectual and inter-religious exchange on the problematization of bioethical issues.
Designed as a qualitative comparative study of Israel and the United States, this research project investigates the role(s) of rabbis and chaplains involved in bioethical decision-making and is concerned with a close examination of the interrelationship of rabbinic discourse and practice regarding bioethical issues. Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of the logic of practice and habitus offer the theoretical framework for evaluating the rabbis’ professional role at the intersection of objective structure, i.e. religious tradition and rabbinic discourse, and the social encounter with congregants and patients. The following pages aim to show that Jewish moral spheres of action are always located at and realized within institutional, social, and cultural contexts. Description regarding social backgrounds and national idiosyncrasies is provided at length due to the fact that bioethical decisions do not occur within a socio-cultural vacuum. Thus, descriptions of Orthodox Judaism and the Reform Movement in the United States and Israel serve as the cultural and historical basis for evaluating rabbinic discourses and practice.
The main part elaborates on the type of questions rabbis receive, the professional networks they rely on, and the main forms of social exchange with congregants and patients. In order to frame the relational dynamic of such exchange, a model was developed. Based on the descriptions given by altogether 52 interview partners, four main constellations, or role types, have emerged from the data. Namely, spiritual-authority, normative-authority, spiritual-resource, and normative-resource. It captures behaviour prevalent either in Orthodox religious cultures, Reform Jewish settings, or both. The last two chapters of this dissertation deliver profund argumentative discourse analyses on two bioethical issues, brain death and organ donation, including their relevance and use in rabbinical decision-making and counselling.
This study contributes to the breadth of research that deals with bioethics and religious traditions. With its practice-oriented, empirical approach, this research project takes into account the social and institutional situatedness of bioethical decision-making processes at the interface of state, healthcare, patient and religious institutions.
Advisors:Bodenheimer, Alfred
Committee Members:Zwiep, Irene and Berger, Zackary
Faculties and Departments:01 Faculty of Theology > Zentrum für Jüdische Studien > Religionsgeschichte und Literatur des Judentums (Bodenheimer)
04 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Fakultär assoziierte Institutionen > Zentrum für Jüdische Studien > Religionsgeschichte und Literatur des Judentums (Bodenheimer)
UniBasel Contributors:Werren, Sarah and Bodenheimer, Alfred
Item Type:Thesis
Thesis Subtype:Doctoral Thesis
Thesis no:15342
Thesis status:Complete
Number of Pages:vi, 300 Seiten, xxi
Language:English
Identification Number:
  • urn: urn:nbn:ch:bel-bau-diss153427
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:19 Aug 2024 14:17
Deposited On:27 May 2024 12:33

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