Lecture: Daniel Sinclair, ‘Combining Religious Norms with Liberal Autonomy in Contemporary Biomedical Law: The Israeli Experience’, Edinburgh

The heteronomous nature of Jewish Law (Halakhah) would at first sight appear to militate against any such combination. A brief glimpse at Israeli legislation and case-law in this area, however, may very well yield a number of issues in which mutual accommodation on the part of both religious and secular legal systems has succeeded in achieving a workable combination of halakhah and democratic values within the framework of the law of the land. These issues include the administration of life-saving therapy; life-support for the terminally ill and defining death in the context of heart transplants. The focus of the discussion will be on the accommodative aspects of each issue, and also on various meta-legal matters such as the effects of changing scientific theories on religious law and the fragility of the sanctity of life in secular biomedical law.

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About Mason Institute (MI) Lunches

Human health is essential for the enjoyment and maximisation of almost all human activities. As our health futures rapidly evolve alongside great medical, scientific, and technological advancement, we are faced with the obligation to both protect patients and promote ethical research. How to successfully navigate these interconnected and complex relationships is a challenge not yet met. The Mason Institute is at the forefront of research into the protection and promotion of human health. The MI Lunch Series reaches across the boundaries of discipline and institution to directly engage with crucial human health actors – researchers, practitioners, policymakers, patients, and the public – to exploit on-going research and explore this challenge.