Is There a Solution for Problems of Illegitimacy, Using Medical Technologies from the Field of Fertility Treatments?

Abstract

Bastards will be purified in the future. To what is the verse referring? To bastards who have already been born and who will born by a natural birth. Why wait for Elijah to purify them if we can enable them to be born without a stigma using modern medical technological means? The solution according to the Jewish law which we offer in this article for people who cannot marry because of the stigma of illegitimacy - is to bear children using artificial insemination or fertilization of the ovum outside the body. In a birth of this kind, the pregnancy was induced without sexual intercourse, and thus severs the chain of illegitimacy by breaking the family relationship between the child and his illegitimate father. Indeed, the child does lack a legal parent, but is not a foundling since the identity of his parents is known. In some cases he is the biological child of a bastard and/or a female bastard. The couple's agreement to bring a child into the world in this way creates the same obligations that a parent has for his child. We would emphasize that this solution does not uproot any of the laws of the torah. The opposite is the case, it may bring peace and reconciliation. In this article, we have shown that it is possible - within the bounds of the Halakha - to ease the lot of the bastard without countermanding the basic ruling that a child's status is that of the more problematic of his parents. Birth through artificial insemination or fertilization of the ovum outside the womb is not the solution for all the bastards, but in many cases it will prevent the birth of bastards even where the parents are illegitimate. Therefore, whoever is able to alleviate the suffering of the bastard may not ignore their situation. He should endeavor to allow them to become parents without transferring their stigma to their children in a way which will be consonant with the Halakha, if, as we have claimed, it is indeed possible.