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shall discuss that issue first and then deal with the case of a non-Jew-
ish woman.

In maseches Chagigah (9a) the gemara says, “Rabbi Shimon ben
Menasya says: ‘What is “crooked that cannot be straightened” (Ko-
heles 1:15)? This refers to a person who has incestuous relations and
thereby sires a mamzer.’” In view of this gemara, a Jewish physician is
probably not allowed to assist a sinning woman in bringing mamzer-
im into the world. Even though the couple are anyway living together
and no transgression of “Do not place a stumbling block before a
blind man” (Vayikra 19:17) is involved, this pertains solely to the sin
of adultery. Here though, there is an added dimension of severity
which makes the sin much worse, for if a mamzer is born to her in
sin, she falls into the category of “something crooked that cannot be
straightened” and just as it is forbidden to enable another person to
sin, it is also forbidden to exacerbate his sin. Moreover, the physician
would be responsible for causing mamzerim to proliferate among the
Jewish people, and as is clear from Tosfos in Gittin (41a, s.v. lisa), it
is forbidden to increase the number of mamzerim among the Jewish
people. This phenomenon itself is undesirable, even when it comes
about in a permitted manner.1

Question: There are countries where a physician can lose his li-
cense for refusing fertility treatment to a woman involved in a sinful
relationship. What course should a Torah observant Jewish physician,
living in such a place follow?

Response: It appears that in such a situation the physician is al-
lowed to treat her, as is evident from the Maharil Diskin’s Kuntress
Acharon (146) where he writes,“If one person threatens another with
damaging his property unless he gives him forbidden food to eat, he
should give it to him and he will not violate the prohibition of lifnei
iver, since the“blind man” is coercing him to trip him up. He need not

1. If an unmarried woman lives with a partner without his having married her, see
earlier, simanim 272-3.

Fertility Treatment for an Adultress 2 471