{"id":54450,"date":"2019-04-28T16:58:25","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T13:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54450"},"modified":"2022-11-19T19:13:04","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T17:13:04","slug":"todays-accidental-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/todays-accidental-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s \u201cAccidental\u201d Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[383,662,867,412],"acf":{"old_id":"54450","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":53706,"related_cahpter":"207","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"For instance - who should be held responsible for a fatal accident caused by a self-driving car?","content":"

In Joshua 20, we read about the implications of accidental murder and what happens to the person who commits manslaughter. Those individuals are sent to an <\/span>ir miklat<\/span><\/em>\u2014one of six cities of refuge\u2014for two reasons: first, the refuge cities serve as a prison system to ensure these individuals don\u2019t accidentally kill again, and second, being in a city of refuge protects those guilty of manslaughter from family members of the slain party who might be seeking revenge. In Deut. 19:5, we are given the example of a person whose axe flew off the handle and accidentally killed a passerby. It is easy to imagine a refuge city populated with these kinds of clumsy people who are constantly putting the lives of others at risk, but it is more relevant to think about the real dangers that exist in our world that lead to accidental deaths.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent discussion that I took part in about halakhic questions regarding autonomous vehicles\u2014in which nobody can take direct blame for an accidental death\u2014left me thinking about the implications of what happens to those involved in light of this chapter. Who should be held responsible for a fatal accident caused by a self-driving car? Or an airplane whose controls fail the pilot? Surely, we couldn\u2019t place a car or airplane in a refuge city for concern over somebody wanting to kill the car. Do we place blame on the company or the technology behind the self-driving cars?<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the Torah example of the faulty axe, the Rabbis discuss, in <\/span>Masekhet Makkot<\/span><\/em>, what happens if the axe has been thoroughly inspected and an accident leading to death still occurs. Perhaps the case in which a car accident occurs despite a car\u2019s software appearing to be completely safe, is comparable to the axe example. As our world evolves, we will be forced to grapple with the questions of what happens when things go awry with our new technologies, and we can still look to the Tanakh for guidance, regardless of how much technology changes our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

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