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of another man [other than her husband] [that he emitted
onto the sheet]. However, she is allowed to lie on a sheet
where her husband lay. Why need she not be concerned that
she may become pregnant while she is a niddah [a menstru-
ating woman, who is forbidden to have relations with her
husband] from her husband’s semen, rendering her child
‘the child of a niddah’ [whose status is blemished]?

“The answer is that since no forbidden act of intercourse
is involved the child is kosher in every respect. Even were she
to become pregnant from the semen of another man the child
would not be a mamzer, for Ben Sira was kosher. Rather, we
are concerned about her becoming pregnant from the semen
of another man lest such a son end up marrying his paternal
sister [which is an incestuous union and forbidden].”

The Beis Shmuel concludes that we can learn from these comments
that a son conceived from semen inserted [artificially] into his
mother’s womb is considered his father’s son, which is why we are
concerned lest he marry his sister from the same father. It is therefore
logical too that the father fulfills the mitzvah of procreation with this
son, since he is considered his son. The Tashbatz (ibid.) writes in a
similar vein.

On the other hand, the Taz, (Even Ha’ezer ibid.) cites the Beis
Shmuel’s proof and rejects it as halachically invalid, for maybe we
only consider the child as his father’s son as a stringency, preventing
him marrying his paternal sister but not in order to rule leniently
and say that the father [whose sperm it is] has fulfilled the mitzvah
of procreation or that this son can exempt his mother from chalitzah
if the father dies without other sons. So too writes the Birkei Yosef
(ibid.).

The sefer Bar Livai (Vol. II,1) cites proof that the child of a woman
who became pregnant in a bathtub is not considered his father’s son.

We thus find four divergent opinions on this matter.

1. The view of the Chelkas Mechokek, who is uncertain as

6 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein