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rah was given?! Evidently, mamzerus does apply to a non-Jews. This is
also implied by the Maharshah’s question [on Tosfos answer, namely]
that the Avos observed the entire Torah even before it was given.
Clearly, he too understands that there is mamzerus for non-Jews. See
also Rashi (Bereishis 36:2) who writes, “The Torah informs us that
they were all begotten in mamzerus.” [He also writes (ibid. passuk 24)
about Anah, “He was a mamzer and he introduced corrupted breeds
into the world.”] It is also said that Amalek was a mamzer. He is thus
of the opinion that there is mamzerus for non-Jews.

Accordingly, it would seem to be forbidden for the physician to
treat the adulterous non-Jewish woman. Nonetheless, the physician
is still not obligated to lose his license and his livelihood by refusing
to treat them, the proliferation of mamzerim taking place among the
nations, not Yisrael.

Moreover, my father-in-law Rav Y.S. Elyashiv zt”l, added that
Rashi in Chagigah (9a) writes that a mamzer is a reminder of [the par-
ents’] guilt and that the sin will not be erased even with repentance.
Accordingly, in regard to the nations, with whose repentance we need
no be concerned – the gemara actually says in Bava Basra (4a),“Why
was Daniel punished? Because he advised Nevuchadnezzar as to how
to attain atonement” – one can treat the fertility problems of adulter-
ers when there is a chance that the Jewish physician will otherwise
sustain harm.

[However, if there is no risk of his sustaining harm it is preferable
that he not get involved in this and refrain from treating them (See
Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 154:2). The reason for this as Rashi (on
Bereishis 7: 4:“I will bring rain upon the earth for forty days and forty
nights”) explains,“corresponding to the [forty days of a] fetus’ forma-
tion, for they sinned by troubling their Creator to create the form
of mamzerim.” It is thus a sin to bother the Creator with forming a
mamzer.]

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474 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein