[Avodah] Donor Kids and Adoption

[Chana Luntz]

> On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 12:53:28AM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote to
> Areivim:
> : I guess you are assuming that biological siblings are going to end up
> : mating and that their offspring will therefore be mamzerim. But is it
> the case
> : that the offspring of a brother and sister are mamzerim? ...

And RMB replies:

> Yes, they would be mamzeirim, even if it was beshogeig. The question I
> have is whether AID, even where the donor is Jewish, actually produces
> a halachic sibling. 

Isn't this precisely where the Ben Sira midrash is usually brought into the
discussion?  ie that Ben Sira was born from the seed of Yirmiyahu after he
had a bath and his daughter then later had a bath in the same bathwater and
conceived (see eg Maharil  in his lekutim), and yet Ben Sira would appear to
be considered a vlad kasher.  See for example the discussion in Yabiat Omer
chelek 2 Even HaEzer siman 1.  But he would also seem to be considered as
the son of Yirmiyahu, for so he is referred to in the various literature, eg
in the Maharil.

Of course if the donor is not Jewish, would not the problem go away?  While
one might prohibit children of different Jewish mothers and the same non
Jewish father marrying if you knew about it, on the same basis that related
converts are prohibited to marry, I would not have thought that, if they did
marry, the offspring would be mamzerim.

Isn't it like the question WRT surrogacy, whether
> the surrogate or the egg donor would be the halachic mother?

Seems slightly different to me, but similar questions do arise.

> Tir'u baTov!
> -Micha



Regards

Chana