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Authority , Autonomy , and the Value of Life A Talmudic Study Ayelet Ho ff mann Libson This article addresses the tension in rabbinic literature between legal authority , medical expertise , and individual autonomy . The clash between authority and expertise on the one hand , and autonomy on the other , comes to a head in the context of matters related to an individual ’ s body . The article examines one manifestation of this con ֳ ict in a passage of the Babylonian Talmud that deals with different interpretations of the experience of pain and illness . This passage focuses on the injunction against eating and drinking on Yom Kippur , and discusses the case of a sick person who becomes endangered by fasting , which is both the central religious obligation of the day and the individual ’ s central means of atonement . The passage reveals opposing and con ֳ icting opinions regarding who is authorized to de fi ne a patient ’ s needs as dire enough to override an important legal prohibitio...
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