DANIEL SCHIFF

question,"..As the aim of scientific predetermination is not to limit families in any way, but to increase their happiness through having the sex they most desire, what does your group think on the subject?"?” After a survey of the relevant halakhic literature, Bettan first describes his view of the Talmudic precedents, and then the appropriate modern reaction, in these terms:

...Of course, all these suggestions partake more of the nature of magic than of pure science. But whatever the value of the methods suggested, they are certainly"moral, simple and safe," even though not quite effective. Above all, they clearly indicate the Rabbinic attitude toward the question raised. The desire of parents to predetermine, if possible, the sex of their progeny, is not a reprehensible desire. The objective sought is a legitimate objective. The issue then resolves itself into this: Will the absolutely reliable method anticipated, though not too hopefully, by the author of the question, be as moral, as simple, and as safe as those projected by the early Rabbinic authorities? Judaism , it is well to state here emphatically, is not a religion that teaches the doctrine that the end justifies the means. In this case, therefore, if the means, yet to be discovered, will prove scientifically sound and morally unassailable, the Jewish teachers of that far-off day will find ample basis for their endorsement of the enterprise in the thought and tradition of their past.

Manifestly,"that far-off day," which Bettan seems to regard as the stuff of science fiction, has already arrived- scarcely a half a century after he penned his responsum. Still, Bettan 's prescription for the progressive "Jewish teachers" of this brave new reproductive world is plain: provided the methods used are"scientifically sound, moral, simple and safe," then there is"ample basis" for endorsement of such preselection practice, since it is certainly not a"reprehensible desire," but is an absolutely"legitimate

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