[Avodah] halachic infertility

[Daniel M. Israel]

On Jun 18, 2012, at 3:59 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 02:17:55PM -0400, Yosef Skolnick wrote:
> : Just to clarify, in these cases there is room to move, a bit, for an
> : experienced posek... 12 is the absolute requirement for most people,
> : but it can be reduced, a bit, in certain cases, such as these, See as an
> : example the treatment given in Halachos of Niddah by Rabbi Binyomin Forst
> : (need to find the chapter again).
> 
> The impression I got from RARakeffetR was that now that the option exists,
> some poesaqim prefer IVH (in vitro fertilization with the husband's sperm)
> to being meiqil.

R' Forst indicates that hormonal treatment to delay ovulation is preferable to early tevilah.  I find both of these positions anti-intuitive for two reasons.  First, why would we prefer an eitzah that clearly was not possible for most of history?  Second, although neither of these are terribly risky procedures, no medical procedure is completely without dangers, so why don't we give any weight avoiding unnecessary medical intervention?

> (For anyone. Doubly so if rumor of this heter might
> relay the message that 7 neqi'im isn't "real".)

AIUI, there is no shortening of the 7, it is the 5 that can be shortened.

> If that's the route
> they take, it's likely the poseiq would advise two tevilos:
> Once, after niddah deOraisa, so that any consequent velad would definitely
> not have the pegam of being a ben niddah; and
> A 2nd time as per most couples, to fulfil the minhag Yisrael of 5 +
> 7 neqi'im.


Are you speculating?  Because I would think that such an approach would seem to cast doubt on the first tevilah, and therefore raise at least as many problems as it would solve.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu