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functioning and would ultimately disintegrate. They therefore re-
moved it before this happened. The Chasam Sofer permitted the man
to marry a Jewess [even though mutilation of the reproductive organs
ordinarily renders a man a kerus shufchah or a petzua daca, who may
not marry a Jewess] because he was anyway naturally sterile and the
surgical resection did not change him in any way. The Divrei Malkiel
(Vol. 3, 88) asks on this from the Chasam Sofer himself, who writes
(Even Ha’ezer 2, 61) that physicians cannot be relied upon in regard
to any individual patient’s body, only on general matters. How then
can we rely on the physicians who said that this testicle had ceased
to function and needed to be removed? Perhaps a skilled physician
would find some way to heal it?
It might be possible to answer that a physician who decides that a
limb has atrophied and decayed and no longer functions can be be-
lieved with certainty because he sees this with his own eyes and is not
basing himself on his assessment. Even Chazal trusted a physician’s
opinion in this respect, as the gemara says in Chullin (53b), “If the
flesh has disintegrated, it is considered missing. What constitutes dis-
integration? Rav Huna, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua said, ‘Wherever
the physician scrapes it away and reveals raw flesh.’”
Can a Blood Test be Relied upon to Disprove
Paternity?
This question has already been discussed by a distinguished beis din,
when it considered the case of a woman who was demanding support
from her ex-husband for their young daughter. The husband pro-
duced a medical document signed by the director of the blood bank
certifying that he had checked the blood types of both parents and the
results showed that the father and mother were both blood type A
whereas the child’s blood type was AB, showing that paternity is im-
possible. After analyzing the facts, the beis din wrote:“The physicians’
assertion that if the child’s blood type matches that of neither parent
112 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein
