AND

INSTITUTE FOR CONTINUING

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT

TOURO COLLEGE

NATIONAL JEWISH INSTITUTE

FOR CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

ASSISTED REPRODUCTION

MEDICINE, CULTURE AND

ETHICS

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION IN THE TALMUD

Spermatozoal dysfunction

Infertility

WHY USE DONOR SPERM?

Primary pathologies of male reproductive system

Environmental life style factors Systemic pathologies

Male accessory gland infection

Immature / Abnormal Spermatoza

Prolonged stasis of spermatozoa in the

epididymis or in transit

Drugs Smoking Pollution & Radiation

Treatment of underlying pathologyAntioxidant supplementation

Avoiding factors promoting ROS gene value

Diabetes

Cancer

Systemic Infection

Evaluation for oxidative stress

WHY USE DONOR SPERM?

Affected Father Normal Mother

D n n n

D n D nn n n n

Affected

female

Normal

male

Affected

male

Normal

female

SPERM DONATION

The Integrity of the Relationship

Challenges

SPERM DONATION

You shall not lie carnally giving seed to your neighbor’s wife. – Leviticus 18:20

There is no proof from the Talmud to say that [insemination] through a bath is permitted for a married woman. As the verse says “You shall not lie carnally giving seed to your neighbor’s wife.” . . .

Although in such a case there is no “carnal relations,” there is “giving of seed,” and who can guarantee that the intention of the verse is not also to prohibit the “giving of seed” to a married woman even without sexual relations?

Perhaps the reason the Torah speaks about sexual relations is because that’s the usual way; but perhaps just like sexual relations without insemination is prohibited, insemination without sexual relations is prohibited.

Rabbi Eliezer Waldenburg (1915-2006)

SPERM DONATION

Challenges

The Institution of marriage

SPERM DONATION

The principal motives for the revulsion against the practice is

the fear of the abuses to which its legalization would lead,

however great the benefits may be in individual cases.

By reducing human generation to stud-farming methods, AID

severs the link between the procreation of children and

marriage, indispensable to the maintenance of the family as

the most basic and sacred unit of human society. It would

enable women to satisfy their craving for children without

the necessity to have homes or husbands.

– Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits (1921 – 1999)

SPERM DONATION

Challenges

Clarity of parentage

TWO WIVES, ONE PROVINCE

Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov said,

“A man should not marry one

woman in one province and

another woman in another

province lest [the children] be

paired with each other, resulting

in a brother marrying a sister.”

– Talmud, Yevamot 37b

PROBLEMS WITH DONOR SPERM

INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION

SAGE ADVICE

Husband has not fulfilled his obligation

May lead to strife

SAGE ADVICE

Non-Jewish

donors

Not considered Adultery Child is not Illegitimate Presumption: donor not Jewish