SELECTED REFORM RESONSA
says that it is the son of the donor; otherwise we would not be concerned lest the child later marry his own blood sister. If he were not, the donor's daughter would not be his sister.
5 In modern times, since the development of the technique of artificial insemination, the subject has been discussed by Hayim Fischel Epstein in his Teshuvah Shelema(Even Haezer,#4), and by Ben Zion Uziel of Tel Aviv . the chief Sephardic rabbi of Palestine, in his Mishpetei Uziel, part II, Even Haezer, section 19.
Epstein- because of the danger that the child may one day, out of ignorance, marry one of the forbidden degrees of relationship- opposes the use of seed from a stranger, but permits the use of the husband's own seed if that is the only way the wife can be impregnated by her husband. Ben Zion Uziel says- as do earlier authorities- that the woman is not immoral because of this act and that the child is kasher, but- disagreeing with Beit Shemuel he says that the child is not the child of the donor as to inheritance and Halitzah. He adds that the woman thus impregnated(if not married) may not marry until the time of suckling the child is over.
Since he concludes that the child is not the donor's child, he therefore considers that the donor has sinned in wasting seed.
However. inasmuch as he concludes that the woman is not immoral and not forbidden to her husband, he seems to incline toward permitting the procedure at the recommendation of the physician although he hesitates to say so.
6. My own opinion would be that the possibility of the child marrying one of his own close blood kin is far-fetched, but that since, according to Jewish law, the wife has committed no sin and the child is kasher, then the process of artificial insemination should be permitted.
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