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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: "david guttmann" <A
href="mailto:david.guttman@verizon.net">david.guttman@verizon.net</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>I would like to get an idea of the current Halachik thinking
about having<BR>children via a surrogate mother? What are the issues?
<BR><BR>Thank you in advance for some insight.<<<BR><BR>David
Guttmann<BR></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial
color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>><BR>The issues include:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>1. If the surrogate is not Jewish, but the implanted embryo (=ovum +
sperm) is from a Jewish mother, is the baby Jewish or not Jewish?
Conversely, if the ovum came from a non-Jewish woman but was carried by a Jewish
surrogate, is the baby Jewish or not?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>2. In the situation where a Jewish couple is infertile and the husband's
sperm is used to impregnate a surrogate, and if that surrogate is a Jewish
married woman, is the resulting baby a mamzer, or a safek mamzer, or 100%
kosher?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>3. If a Jewish married woman acts as a surrogate for another
couple, and becomes pregnant either A. with her own eggs and another man's sperm
or B. with another couple's eggs and sperm (embroyos), is she considered to have
committed adultery and is she now forbidden to her husband?</FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>4. If the infertile couple are both Jewish but the wife becomes
pregnant using donated eggs (maybe because she had her own ovaries surgically
removed) and/or using donated sperm, what is the status of the resulting baby?
If her husband is a kohen, is the baby a kohen -- if the sperm came from another
man? Or if her husband is not a kohen but the sperm donor is a
kohen, is the baby a kohen? Is the baby Jewish -- if the eggs came
from a non-Jewish donor? Is the baby a mamzer? This whole paragraph
technically isn't about a surrogate mother but about a couple who did IVF but
not with their own sperms and eggs. (BTW IMO people should not use
donated eggs and sperm, period. It just raises too many halachic, social
and genetic issues.)</FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>5. If the surrogate mother got pregnant with sperms and/or eggs
from the Jewish couple and later changed her mind and insisted on keeping the
baby, what is the baby's yichus? Let's say the surrogate mother
is not Jewish -- is the baby Jewish because the genetic material came from
Jews? Or let's say she is Jewish -- is the baby the same shevet as the
genetic father (Levi or Yisrael)? Does the baby's status change according
to whether the mother who carried it keeps it, or gives it to the contracting
couple whose genetic material she carried?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>As I said above, I think there are just way too many problems and nobody
should use a surrogate mother. And definitely nobody should /be/ a
surrogate mother. Adoption is a better option. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>The question is more bedieved, if somebody was born to a surrogate mother
and grew up and became a BT, what is his status?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>(I think that the mother who carries and gives birth to the baby
determines its Jewish status, regardless of the genes, but I don't know all
the teshuvos on this subject, there must be plenty.) <BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Speaking of surrogate mothers, in the Torah we find that a man would take
a second wife (like Hagar) or a pilegesh (like Bilhah and Zilpah) in order to
produce a child who would be raised by the first, main wife, but then the
"surrogate" mother remained part of his household, under his roof, married to
him, and did not go off and live in another family away from her children.
(It seems that the mother who thought "I will raise my maid's child on
my knee, love him and teach him as my own" -- it didn't turn out that way.
In fact, Rochel thought she would raise her handmaiden's children and ironically
exactly the opposite happened -- Rochel died in childbirth and Bilhah actually
raised Rochel's children.) (Which is probably why Yakov went to live in
Bilhah's tent rather than Leah's tent when Rochel died -- the children of the
most beloved wife were in Bilhah's tent.) (So family dynamics get really,
really complicated with surrogacy or anything like it -- thus adding sholom
bayis to the list of surrogacy issues.)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby Katz<BR>=============<BR></B>"If you don't
read the newspaper you are uninformed; <BR>if you do read the newspaper you are
misinformed."<BR>--Mark Twain<BR>Read *Jewish World Review* at <A
href="http://jewishworldreview.com/">http://jewishworldreview.com/</A></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="a72de2275f759afda20a801e5fad2f72"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Life should be easier. So should your homepage. <a href="http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000002">Try the NEW AOL.com</a>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>