IS OLD AGE A DISEASE?
26. An outstanding contemporary representative is Richard Posner: Overcoming Law (Cambridge : Harvard University Press , 1995), and Problems of Jurisprudence(Cambridge : Harvard University Press , 1990). For an important collection of essays see Michael Brint and William Weaver, eds., Pragmatism in Law and Society(Boulder: Westview Press, 1991).
22. This term includes the Critical Legal Studies movement, feminist legal theorists, and critical racial legal theorists, all of whom are committed to the notion that“law” is essentially politics by another name and that the dominant social group will designate its politics as“law” to give it the appearance of neutrality and objectivity. For comprehensive discussion and bibliography see Mark Kelman , A Guide to Critical Legal Studies(Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press , 1988), and Gary Minda, Postmodern Legal Movements: Law and Jurisprudence at Century's End(New York : New York University Press , 1995).
28. I will make this argument, in fact, in a forthcoming essay entitled“Responsa and the Art of Writing: Three Examples from the Teshuvot of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.”
29. Although the principle of medical efficacy may differ from that of equality of persons, it does accept the premises on which the latter is based. Thus, since all lives are equal before God , one cannot determine that any one life is more worthy of saving than is any other. This does permit us, however, to argue that it is better to act in such a way as to save more lives than fewer.
30. The foregoing is clearly not a thorough discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the use of social value criteria in medical resource allocation, and I do not mean these words as an endorsement of the use of such criteria in actual decision making. I merely suggest that a respectable case can be made on behalf of such a set of priorities and that liberal halakhists could find support for it in the sources. Responsible ethicists can and do argue in favor of the use of social value criteria in patient selection. For a judicious discussion of both sides of this issue, see Kilner, pp. 27fT, and the substantial literature he cites.
31. The language is that of R. Ya’akov Emden, Migdal Oz, Chap.“Even Bochen,” sec. 1.
32. The best, most detailed and comprehensive version of this narrative is Louis Jacobs , A Tre¢ of Life: Diversity, Flexibility, and Creativity in Jewish Law(New York : Oxford University Press , 1984); the title suggests the book’s central argument. See also Moshe Zemer , Halakhah shefuyah (Tel Aviv : Devir, 1993). The vitality and variety of the study of Halakhah in medieval times is the stuff of the researches of a number of prominent academic scholars, the most outstanding of whom are Israel Ta-Shema, Hayyim Soloveitchik, and Jacob Katz . For a summary and bibliography Bee Mark Washofsky,“Medieval Halakhic Literature and the Reform Rabbi: A Neglected Relationship, CCAR Journal(Fall, 1993), 61-74.