• The Transitioning of Jewish Biomedical Law: Rhetorical and Practical Shifts in Halakhic Discourse on Sex-Change Surgery

    Author(s):
    Hillel Gray (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    Jewish Studies
    Subject(s):
    Ethics, Jews--Study and teaching
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    bioethics, Jewish law, transgender studies, Gender and sexualities, Gender studies, Jewish studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6SF5N
    Abstract:
    This article examines discourse dynamics in Jewish law on sex-change surgery (SCS) and, in general, transitioning between genders. Orthodox medical ethics has moved beyond the abstract condemnation of SCS to the design of practical rules for transsexuals living in observant communities. The reasoning against SCS has also shifted, both in complexity and with implicit ties to Christian and secular tropes. By medicalizing or, conversely, spiritualizing the experiences of transgendered persons, a few Orthodox authors are opening up interpretive space for sympathetic responses to SCS. Such transitions reach their most elaborate expression in Israeli Orthodox rabbi Edan ben Ephraim’s 2004 monograph, Generation of Perversions, which has taken center stage in Orthodox deliberations on transsexuality. Overall, halakhic discourse seems to be moving in innovative, unavoidably interdiscursive directions.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    DOI: 10.2979/nashim.29.81
    Publisher:
    Indiana University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2016-3-3
    Journal:
    Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women\'s Studies & Gender Issues
    Issue:
    29
    Page Range:
    81 - 107
    ISSN:
    0793-8934
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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