We spoke about a person who is going to be executed. Here we’ll talk about other halachot (laws) that apply to this type of person. The Mishnah says: A pregnant woman who was sentenced to death and is going to be executed is not granted a delay until she gives birth. If she is pregnant, we put her to death immediately, even though the unborn baby—the fetus in her stomach—will be killed with her as well. They are considered one entity, one body. A fetus is not an independent life; it is considered part of the mother. Ubar (fetus) is like the thigh of the mother. It is considered a body part of the mother. Therefore, even though, if we have the ability to choose, we are not allowed to kill a fetus, in this situation, in the case of execution, it shares its mother’s fate and is killed together with her. If the mother has already sat on the birthing stool, she is already in labor, and the baby has now moved internally. It is not in her womb anymore; it is about to leave. Therefore, at this point in time, it is considered its own entity. At that point, we have to wait for her to give birth before we execute her, because we want to make sure that we don’t harm the baby, since it is no longer part of the mother.
You’re not allowed to benefit whatsoever from the body of a person who is dead. The same applies to somebody who is being executed. Here we’ll talk about a woman’s hairpiece that was braided into her own hair. If women had thinning hair, they wanted it to look more attractive, so they would put a wig or different hairpieces into their own hair to make it look thicker. What if a woman was executed and still had the hairpiece attached to her hair when she died? You’re allowed to benefit from the hairpiece that was in the hair of a woman who was executed by the Beit Din (rabbinical court) at the time she died. The Gemara points out here that if it was tied together with her own hair, it is forbidden, just like her own hair. It is part of her own hair. Therefore, they say that the Mishnah must be talking about a case where she revealed before her execution that she wanted to give this hairpiece to her daughter or to another person, which is gali da'ata. It reveals to us that she doesn’t want this extra hair to be part of her body. So we look at it as if it had been removed from her body at the moment of execution, and therefore, you would be permitted to benefit from it at that point in time.
But with an animal that was put to death by the Beit Din, if it killed a person, the halacha (Jewish law) is different. We say that an animal that killed a person and was put to death by the Beit Din may not be benefited from in any way, even its hair. There’s no way that you could benefit from an animal that was condemned to death, even before it was put to death. We cannot benefit from it whatsoever—not even from its hair, which is considered an insignificant part of the animal.