Page 101 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 101 - 4-Front 21-10-31

people who undergo terrible emotional suffering from witnessing
their existing children endure debilitating genetic disease – this pain
can sometimes drive a woman out of her mind. Therefore, when a
couple carry the genes of severe genetic disease it is hard to forbid
them to use artificial insemination and the new technology for fertil-
izing only those ova which are not susceptible to disease.

This grudging permission to employ the new techniques is given
only on the specific and doubly binding condition that the utmost care
be taken not to exchange the husband’s semen with that of another
man. Similarly, when engaging in in vitro fertilization, utmost care
must be taken to avoid switching ova, for doing so raises concerns of
mamzerus, as explained elsewhere.4 Torah sages should be consulted
regarding how to go about this. Particular care should also be taken
not to cause the husband to emit superfluous semen, because doing
so involves an extremely severe prohibition.

It is permitted to refrain from implanting those [fertilized] ova that
are found to be susceptible to genetic disease and it is even permitted
to destroy them and no prohibition is involved. These fertilized eggs,
which are presently outside the womb, are not considered “lives” and
their destruction is not considered taking life. This is because the
Torah forbids spilling the blood of a person who is within another
person, as Chazal derive in maseches Sanhedrin (57b) on the passuk,
“He who spills the blood of man, in man shall his blood be spilled”
(Bereishis 9:6), which the Sages apply to a fetus living inside a person
i.e. in its mother's womb but not when it is still in a test tube.

It is similarly forbidden to desecrate Shabbos in order to save fer-
tilized eggs in a test tube, because these are not considered “lives”. It
is permitted to desecrate Shabbos to save the life of someone already
born but not the life of someone who is not yet born. [Moreover, it
is clear from the Chazal that it is forbidden to violate Torah prohibi-
tions in order to revive the dead. Tosfos therefore ask (Bava Metzia

4. Earlier, siman 253.

Avoidance of Genetic Disease through In Vitro Fertilization 2 85