What is the Conservative movement's position on various bioethical and medical issues, and on homosexuality?
Bioethical and medical issues
Modern day medical breakthroughs have transformed long-held beliefs on the nature of both life and death; they raise difficult moral and religious questions. These subjects are addressed in "Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics " by Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff. $34.95, HC, Jewish Publication Society, 1998. This book discusses medical ethical dilemmas from a specifically Conservative/Masorti point of view, and is informed by the teshuvot of the CJLS. It addresses issues such as artificial insemination, genetic engineering, cloning, surrogate motherhood, in-vitro fertilization, masturbation, homosexuality, genetic engineering, and birth control, as well as living wills, hospice care, euthanasia, organ donation, and autopsy. However, the book as a whole is not an official position of the CJLS.
Positions of the Conservative movement on these issues can be found on-line.
The Mitzvah of organ donation
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/article.asp?ArticleID=105
Family violence
http://www.uscj.org/publicaffairs/review/violence.htm
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/Articlenolist.asp?ArticleID=67
Artificial Insemination, Egg Donation, and Adoption
http://www.uscj.org/publicaffairs/review/egg.htm
A Jewish Response to the Use of a Surrogate Mother
http://www.jtsa.edu/pubs/jtsmag/vol8num2/hatesh.html
Health care reform
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=30
Responsibilities for the Provision of Health Care: CJLS teshuva
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=584
USCJ position on AIDS/HIV
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=25
Permissibility of genetic engineering
http://www.masorti.org/responsa/genetics.html
Care of terminally ill patients, life support and related issues
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/article.asp?ArticleID=319
Jews and drug or alcohol addiction
http://www.uscj.org/publicaffairs/review/addict.htm
Abortion: Jewish religious rights and responsibilities. Includes a discussion of the secular judicial and legislative background; the traditional Jewish legal perspective, and an official statement by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS)
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/article.asp?ArticleID=396
Pain relief and the risk of suicide
http://www.sfhs.edu/critint/v5_n2/mackler.htm
What about homosexuality?
In 1992 the law commitee accepted four teshuvot (responsa) on homosexuality; these were used as backing sources for a unified consensus position. The consensus position is that given the current scientific, psychological and biological information on the origin and nature of homosexuality, homosexual relationships can not be judged to be in accord with halakha (Jewish law). Some of the responsa note that future information on this subject may be sufficient to utilize leninencies and potential legal novellae; therefore the law committee holds the right to re-evauate this area at a future date. The "CJLS Consensus Statement of Policy Regarding Homosexual Jews in the Conservative Movement" approved March 25, 1992, reads as follows:
(A) We will not perform committment ceremonies for gays and lesbians.
(B) We will not knowingly admit avowed homosexuals to our rabbinical and cantorial schools, or the Rabbinical Assembly or Cantors' Assembly. At the same time, we will not instigate witch hunts against those who are already members or students.
(C) Whether homosexuals may function as teachers or youth leaders in our congregations and schools will be left to the rabbi authorized to make halakhic decisions for a given instituion in the Conservative movement. Presumably, in this as in all other matters, the rabbi will make such decisions taking into account the sensitivities of the people of his or her congregation or school. The rabbi's own reading of Jewish law on these issues, informed by the Responsa written for the CJLS to date, will also be a determinative factor in these decisions.
(D) Similarly, the rabbi of each Conservative institution, in consultation with its lay leaders, will be intrusted to formulate policies regarding the eligibility of homosexuals for honors within worship and lay leadership positions.
(E) In any case, in accordance with the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue Resolutions we are hereby affirming gays and lesbians are welcome in our congregations, youth groups, camps and schools.
The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) resolution of May 1990 expresses the Conservative movement's policy on this issue. It is a position of the RA as a whole, and while compatible with the CJLS position, it is not a CJLS position per se. [The CJLS is the official halakhic body of the RA, but the RA as a whole can issue its own papers on any subject.]
Whereas Judaism affirms that the Divine image reflected by every human being must always be cherished and affirmed, and
Whereas Jews have always been sensitive to the impact ofofficial and unofficial prejudice and discrimination, whenever directed, and
Whereas gay and lesbian Jews have experienced not only the constant threats of physical violence and homophobic rejection, but also the pains of anti-Semitism known to all Jews and, additionally, a sense of painful alienation from our own religious institutions, and
Whereas the extended family of gay and lesbian Jews are often members of our congregations who live with concern for the safety, health, and well being of their children, and
Whereas the AIDS crisis has deeply exacerbated the anxiety and suffering of this community of Jews who need in their lives the compassionate concern and support mandated by Jewish Tradition,
Therefore be it resolved that we, the Rabbinical Assembly, while affirming our tradition's prescription for heterosexuality,
1) Support full civil equality for gays and lesbians in our national life, and
2) Deplore the violence against gays and lesbians in our society, and
3) Reiterate that, as are all Jews, gay men and lesbians are welcome as members in our congregations, and
4) Call upon our synagogues and the arms of our movement to increase our awareness, understanding and concern for our fellow Jews who are gay and lesbian.
The Rabbinical Assembly's Commission on Human Sexuality recommends that Conservative synagogues take one or more of the following steps, which are listed in the RA's pastoral letter on human sexuality: "This Is My Beloved, This Is My Friend: A Rabbinic Letter on Intimate Relations" by Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff on behalf of the RA.
1. Synagogue groups might meet with gay and lesbian Jews to put a face to this issue and to learn how the synagogue can be more welcoming. The goal would be to sensitize synagogue members to the fact that Jewish gays, lesbians and their families are not an outside group but are part of our own community and should be treated as such.
2. In those instances where synagogues have programs for special constituencies within the congregation, such programs might be created for gay and lesbian Jews and their families as well. So, for example, information about support groups such as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and gays (PFLAG) can be disseminated through the synagogue media, and the synagogue might host such a group. Gays and lesbians, though, should generally be integrated into the ongoing activities of the congregation.
3. Synagogue and school educators might include, as part of the curriculum, a section on sexuality, and within this, some material on homosexuality. Where the students are teenagers or adults, this might well take the form of a study of this rabbinic letter, including its citation of the resolutions of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue.
In such courses it should be made clear that sexual activity, while an important part of everyone's life, is not the whole of it. One consequence of this is that Jewish homosexuals, like Jewish heterosexuals, should not be seen narrowly as people who engage in certain kinds of sexual practices, but rather as people and Jews, with the full range of interactions that people and Jews have with each other.
4. Conservative synagogues, individually, regionally and nationally, might organize social action programs to advance the civil protections of gays and lesbians.
