Q&A: Father in In Vitro Fertilization
Father in In Vitro Fertilization
Question
Hello and blessings!
I saw that many later authorities say regarding a woman impregnated in a bath that the owner of the semen is not considered the father.
What is the reasoning behind that?
Answer
They probably assume that intercourse is required in order to be a father. There are opinions among the halakhic decisors that in surrogacy the surrogate is the mother and not the egg donor. I really don’t think so and don’t see the logic in it.
Discussion on Answer
1. Clearly those are not the cells, but it is the DNA. And that does not disappear or get replaced.
2. The common explanation is that the nurturing and education that is transmitted is the parenthood. But that does not seem plausible to me. An adoptive father is not a father in the strict legal sense. Father and mother are biological concepts.
I thought of two possible directions, and I admit they are not especially convincing, but I still wonder whether maybe there is room to develop them:
1. Our body is not the cells that make up the body, but the body as a whole, since the cells are constantly replaced, as is well known. After all, it’s obvious that if we see that layer of semen in the bath we wouldn’t say, “That’s Reuven,” and a tissue with mucus in it that we used to blow our nose isn’t me either….. So in essence, the moment my body’s cells detach from my body, the connection between us loosens, and therefore in our case the semen is no longer attributed to him, and so he is not the father?
2. The concepts of father and mother are not only a matter of creating the child (for which, of course, in vitro fertilization is sufficient), but also of linking the child to a family tree, to a lineage, “giving the child pedigree,” and so on.
In other words, father and mother are not merely biological concepts, but a kind of more abstract bond and relationship between children and parents, and in order for that bond to be created, intercourse is required. That is because to attach a child to a lineage there must be a connection between him and the father, and that happens only if the father is actively involved in the process of creation and not in an incidental and passive way.
What do you think?