Israel’s Chief Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled yesterday that a baby conceived in a manner other than intercourse between husband and wife is still the valid child of both parents, provided that the woman became pregnant by her husband’s semen. Thus, Yosef concluded, the test tube baby born recently in England was halachically valid as long as there was no other way for the woman to become pregnant. Yosef spoke at the opening session of the Torah Shebealpeh (Oral Law) Convention, which meets in Jerusalem.
The rabbi took note of the differences of opinion among Jewish poskim (interpreters of halacha) with regard to artificial insemination. While some ruled that the baby was a mamzer (bastard), others argued that, since illicit sexual relations were not involved in this case, the child was “legal.” Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren said recently that, although there was no halachic ban on the test tube insemination, the practice was contrary to Jewish morality.
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