JPost
In an unprecedented move, the Haifa Rabbinical Court has ordered a woman to answer questions about her relations with men and alleged drug abuse while connected to a lie detector, Army Radio revealed on Thursday morning.
The woman has reportedly denied accusations by her husband, who told the rabbinical court his wife had been unfaithful and had smoked drugs.[...]
In an unprecedented move, the Haifa Rabbinical Court has ordered a woman to answer questions about her relations with men and alleged drug abuse while connected to a lie detector, Army Radio revealed on Thursday morning.
The woman has reportedly denied accusations by her husband, who told the rabbinical court his wife had been unfaithful and had smoked drugs.[...]
שו"ת אגרות משה אבן העזר חלק ד סימן צח
ReplyDeleteחולה שאינו יכול לדבר ולרמוז אם יכול לגרש ע"י פאליגראף.
כ"ח כסלו תשל"ט. לכבוד הרה"ג מוהר"ר אלימלך שכטר שליט"א.
הנה חולה שאינו יכול לדבר ואף לא להרכין ראשו ולרמוז באופן אחר ומכירין כוונתו לגרש אשתו ע"י המכונה פאליגראף (גלאי שקר) שרושמת דפיקות לבו וכד', ג"כ אם באותה שעה בדקוהו בענינים אחרים וראו שהשיב נכון בידיעה והבנה במה שהשיב ותיכף שאלוהו אם רוצה ליתן גט לאשתו, יש לסמוך על זה, כמו שהשיב חתני הרה"ג מוה"ר משה דוד טנדלר שליט"א בשמי, אך בכל מגרש צריך לעשות באותה השעה גם בדיקות אחרים ולא לסמוך לעולם על מה שבדקו פעם אחת איזה חולה.
Should they not both be tested? It would also give more credible weight to the evidense.
ReplyDeletePolygraphs are not reliable, and for this reason should not be allowed in secular court cases. Even were they to be accurate, polygraphs would result in a witness 'testifying' against themselves, and thus should be barred in religious courts as testifying against yourself is also forbidden.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Electroinc Privacy Information Center:
In 2002, a panel from the National Academy of Sciences were charged with "conduct[ing] a scientific review of the research on polygraph examinations that pertains to their validity and reliability, in particular for peronnel secutiry screening." The panel's findings were compiled into the report, "The Polygraph and Lie Detection," and presented to Congress and the Department of Energy. The panel found polygraph testing to be unscientific because it lacked fixed standards. After reiviewing the available data and studies on polygraph testing, the panel concluded: "Almost a century of research in scientific psychology and physiology provides little basis for the expectation that a polygraph test could have extremely high accuracy." Further, there was little hope for advancing polygraph testing. According to the panel's findings: "The inherent ambiguity of the physiological measures used in the polygraph suggest that further investments in improving polygraph technique and interpretation will bring only modest improvements in accuracy."
See the article by Eliav Shochetman on polygraph in halacha in TECHUMIN
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jlaw.com/Articles polygraph.html He's actually in favor of using it.
In general, Chazal *did* follow the opinions of gentile scientists of their time (see the gemara in Pesachim 94b re: R. Yehuda Hanassi; the gemara in Shabbat 85a re: agriculture; the Yerushalmi in Shviit 9:2 on animal behavior).
The Nishmat Avraham lists a few cases where R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach z"l was in favor of using scientific testing. It seems to me that this would be similar to ANAN SAHADEI in the use by the Beit Din. This "evidence" is taken under consideration by the Beit Din.
The consensus of authorities is that polygraph is not reliable - don't know why they are relying on this.
ReplyDeleteDr. Backon also noted in his letter to me [that part was published above] that the polygraph had zero validity.