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a forbidden union may not marry another Jew], we shall first discuss
the status of a such a child whose parents are married to each other.
Is he or is her not viewed as the offspring of his father? It frequently
happens that a regular married couple experiences difficulty in having
children in the normal way and they seek artificial insemination using
the husband’s sperm, as in the following examples:

1. Some men’s sperm does not ejaculate powerfully enough to
“shoot like an arrow,” meaning that while the sperm itself is of good
quality and is able to impregnate the woman, it is not ejaculated
during intercourse sufficiently powerfully to reach the ovum inside
the uterus. Therefore in such cases the physicians take the husband’s
sperm and inject it with a syringe into the neck of the womb (cervix).

2. In other cases the amount of sperm ejaculated during intercourse
is insufficient for impregnating the woman [i.e. there is a low sperm
count (hypospermia)]. The physicians therefore collect the sperm
from several ejaculations and inject them together into the uterus.

3. In some cases the woman is unable to become pregnant because
her womb is narrow, or because the husband’s body is afflicted with
leprous lesions and he may not have marital relations with his wife in
the normal way. The physicians then extract sperm from the man and
inject it into the woman.

In all of these cases, the question arises as to whether the child is
considered his father’s offspring in regard to whether, when the father
is a Kohen the child also a Kohen or, since his birth did not result
from a natural act he is not considered his father’s offspring. This
question impacts additional areas of halachah such as: does a child
born through artificial insemination inherit his father’s property, and
is he obligated to honor him? Is the son liable for the death penalty
if he strikes or curses his father? Does he exempt his mother from
either chalitzah or yibum if his father died without leaving any other
offspring? And similarly, can he perform chalitzah for his childless
brother’s widow when there is another brother who was born nor-
mally who can give her chalitzah? There are further questions of this
nature.

Now, the possibility of a woman’s becoming pregnant through

Artificial Inseminatio 2 3