SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA
the pregnancy was undesired. It was not artificial in the sense in which this expression is being used today.
2. Helkat Mehokek(Moses ben Isaac Yehuda Lima) on Shulhan Arukh, Even Haezer 1, note 8, raise the question(in connection with the mamzer) whether the father fulfilled the commandment of periya ureviya (procreation) if his wife was impregnated in the bath, an whether the resulting child is his child in every respect. Instead of giving a clear answer, Helkat Mehokek cites an incident from Likutei Maharil. According to this incident, Ben Sira was the result of a bat insemination(yet no blemish is attached to him).
3. Beit Shemuel(Samuel ben Uri Phoebus), ibid., note 10, cites Helkat Mehokek's question and answers it by referring in brief to Hagahot Semak, a note by Perez (ben Elijah) on Semak(Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil ). This note is related fully in Bah(Joel Sirkes ) on Tur, Yoreh Deah 195, and tells us the following: A menstruous woman may lic on the sheet of her husband but not on that of a stranger lest she become pregnant from the seed of a stranger(emitted on the sheet). But why should she not be afraid of becoming pregnant from the seed of her husband while she is menstruating and thus producing a Ben Hanida(child of a menstruous woman), which is prohibited? The answer: Since there is no prohibited intercourse, the child is entirely kasher(no stigma attached to him), even if she became pregnant(in such a way) by a stranger, since Ben Sira was kasher (see above). Yet, if it is a stranger, we have to be cautious(i.e., she must not lie on his sheet), because of the possibility that the resulting child might marry his own sister by his father(whose identity is unknown). Beit Shemuel concludes from this note that the child resulting from such an insemination is that of the emitter of the seed in every respect.
This conclusion, needless to say, is irreconcilable with the fundamental rule of artificial insemination, requiring that the child belong to
the mother's husband, not to the donor of the seed.
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