[Avodah] establishing mamzerut

[Arie Folger]

RTK wrote:
> 2.  You keep talking about IVF as a way of having the baby be a
>  non-mamzer, i.e., one way the baby would have DNA from a man to whom his
> mother  was not married.  But there is a simpler way, which is has been
> around a  lot longer and is still much more commonly used, when the woman
> is fertile and  her husband is not, and that is artificial insemination
> with donor sperm.

Actually, I originally included IUF as well. In subsequent holoikh yeileikh 
IVF was used as shorthand for all artificial insemination.

Regarding your question whether everyone agrees that a child conceived through 
donor-IVF/IUF is not a mamzer, the answer is no. Some hold that the child is 
kosher and a child of the sperm donor (RMF, IIRC), others hold that there is 
no father, as paternity is established through normal marital relations 
(these are the posqim that prohibit husband-IVF/IUF as well), while a third 
group holds that the child is a mamzer. Some want to make the whole thing 
partially dependant on who the doctor is who puts the sperm in the test tube 
(actuall, petri dish IIRC) and consequently prefer a woman, so that she 
cannot influence paternity.

The social father does not impart his kohen status to the child. Whether a 
biological IVF child would receive his kohen status from his father is 
dependent on the opinions above.

BTW, teh reason why some posqim recognize paternity through IVF and yet deny 
mamzership of donor-IVF babies is that a mamzer comes about through the 
transgression (intentional or not) of a karet prohibition except be'ilat 
niddah. Since in teh case of IVF/IUF there was no sexual intercourse, these 
posqim reason that there can be no mamzerut.

Gute Vokh (actually, you-guys-in-the-USA can't read it yet, but I should still 
wish you gute Shabbos),

Arie Folger