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who emits semen for naught is liable for the death penalty, for it says
about Er and Onan (Bereishis 38:10),“What he did was evil in Hash-
em’s eyes and He put him to death too.” This was the manner in which
the generation of the Flood were corrupt, as it says (ibid.6:12),“For all
flesh had corrupted its way [of life] on the earth”. How then can it be
permitted to transgress this sin for investigative purposes?

There are several ways in which the poskim interpret this gemara:

First Approach – The Torah only forbids wasteful emission: The
Mitzpeh Aryeh (Tinyana, 6) writes that the prohibition of emitting
semen for naught only applies when the semen goes to waste as it
is says about Er and Onan, “He wasted [it] onto the ground” (ibid.
38:9). It says similarly about the generation of the Flood,“For all flesh
spilled its intercourse onto the ground” (ibid. 6:12). However, emit-
ting semen for the purpose of testing to see whether a hole in the male
organ has closed in order to allow him to marry a Jewess is permitted,
because this is not “wasting” the semen.

For example, we find that the Rambam writes (Hilchos Yesodei Ha-
torah 6:7):“A person who removes even a single stone in a destructive
manner from the altar or from the Temple or from anywhere else
in the [Temple] courtyard, is flogged.” The poskim learn from this
wording that it is permitted to break one of the altar’s stones for the
purpose of repairing it, since this does not involve breaking it in a
destructive manner. In regard to the prohibition of erasing Hashem’s
Name too, the poskim write that if ink spills over Hashem’s Name it
may all be erased [i.e. the Name along with the stain] in order to repair
it, since this is a constructive, not a destructive erasure. According to
this logic it is thus also permitted to emit semen for the purpose of
medical testing since this is not being done in a destructive, wasteful
manner.

We find a similar ruling to this in the sefer Kol Yehudah (30), re-
garding a couple who had been married for a number of years without
children and the woman asked her husband for a divorce. The phy-
sicians determined that he was the cause for their failure to achieve
pregnancy and he sought permission to emit semen for testing, to see

12 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein