[Avodah] establishing mamzerut

[Zev Sero]

T613K at aol.com wrote:

> 1.  Does everyone agree that if the sperm came from a donor but not 
> through intercourse then the baby is not a mamzer? 

No. RAF's post followed the shita of RMF, but the SR held that the
child is a mamzer.  This dispute was the cause of Satmar's big
machlokes against RMF.


>  If the woman's husband is a kohen but the donor sperm comes from a 
> non-kohen (or a non-Jew) -- what is the status of the child?  Non-mamzer 
> and a kohen?  Non-mamzer but non-kohen either?  Challal?

AIUI, none of the above.  Not a mamzer, not a kohen, and not a chalal.


> 3.  A third question suggests itself.  What is the yichus status of an 
> IVF baby whose mother and father ARE married to each other (husband 
> sperm, no third-party donor sperm) -- since by definition an IVF baby is 
> not the result of normal intercourse?  If you say that a DNA-donor does 
> not make the baby a mamzer, does that mean that there is no relation 
> between the DNA-donor and the baby even when the donor and the 
> mother /are/ married?

No, RMF's shita is not that there is no relation between the sperm
donor and the child.  He holds that they are related, but that a
mamzer is only produced by an act of avera, and since with AI there
is no avera the child produced is kosher.  A more interesting
question is what he would hold if the donor is a kohen.  Can a child
born to the wife of a yisrael be a kosher kohen?  (It's been many
years since I read the relevant teshuva, so I don't remember whether
RMF addresses this question.)

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas