SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA

ovaries may be enlarged, and there is later danger of the necessity for surgery. Therefore physicians, in every individual case, will need to balance the physical danger against the family benefit. So, too, there will be considerable discussion in the Jewish legal literature, balancing the danger against the benefits.

So far I have found only one mention of the use of this pill. In Vol. 16 of Noam, published by Menachem Kasher (p. 43 in Kuntros Harefuah), there is mention of a kadur heroyon, i.e., a fertility pill. The authority discussing this pill is concerned only with the question whether or not it may be taken on the Sabbath . On the Sabbath , sickness involving pain or danger may receive all necessary healing. But fertility pills, as also vitamin pills, do not involve physical pain which requires a doctor's immediate attention- hence the discussion of whether the fertility pill may be taken on the Sabbath . But the very fact that the only question asked about the fertility pill was whether or not it may be taken on the Sabbath is an indication that for the present there is no general objection to it. On principle there could hardly be any objection to it. The idea of quadruplets or quintuplets was, at least on one

occasion, looked upon as a blessing. When Scripture says(Exodus 1:7) that in Egypt "the Children of Israel were fruitful and multiplied," the Midrash (cited by Rashi to the verse, of Exodus Rabbah 1:8, also Yalkut Shimoni ad loc.) relates that"they gave birth to six infants in one womb."

As the pill becomes more widely known, and the discussion concerning the dangers that might be involved is dealt with, the dangers will be weighed against the blessing the children may bring to family life. In consideration of the fact that to"increase and multiply" is one of the premier blessings of Scripture, and that the commandment to"increase and multiply" is a man's primary mitzvah, it would seem that, although the Talmud knows