[Avodah] establishing mamzerut

[Arie Folger]

RMB wrote:
> I was under the impression that we bend over backward lehatir agunos, as
> well as to presume kosher yichus. And thus, I am very surprised that
> 1:1,000 understainty is sufficient le'esor.

Correction: an error of less than 1 in a thousand is enough to allow.

> I therefore did not assume that a form of birur that can be matir WRT
> agunah would necessarily be use to declare someone a mamzeir, since the
> former runs with the general trend, and the latter against it

Once you assume that DNA is quasy faultless, it equals certainty. You no 
longer can claim that there is a reasonable interpretation of the presence of 
the bo'el's DNA in the child.

Actually, I believe there is a reasonable interpretation which would suffice, 
and I am surprised that it wasn't suggested at the conference: the child 
might be the bo'el's and still not be a mamzer, since it could have been 
conveived by IUF, IVF etc.

Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't feel sufficiently at home to publicly 
confront the speaker (a major figure) with that question. It would also have 
been embarassing to say "there is an elefant in the room", namely, that DNA 
is a lot more reliable than 999/1000.

KT,

Arie Folger