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mother’s impregnation by another man’s sperm suffice to make him
a mamzer?

Now, the Pri Megadim (General Introduction, Orach Chaim, 2:7)
raises the question of whether a child born to a married woman who
had relations with an imbecile is a mamzer. Since the imbecile is in-
capable of forming any marriage bond at all perhaps he resembles a
gentile in this respect and the child will not be a mamzer. The Chelkas
Yoav disagrees with this and proves that the child is a mamzer, appar-
ently showing that even without an act of forbidden intercourse the
child is a mamzer. This proof can be refuted though, since intercourse
with an imbecile is certainly a forbidden act even though [owing to
his minimal mental function] he is not liable for the death penalty,
therefore the child is a mamzer. However, we do not see from this
that the child of a married woman who is impregnated by a donor’s
sperm without any act of forbidden intercourse whatsoever will be a
mamzer.

The question is apparently resolved by the Mishneh Lemelech
(on Hilchos Ishus 15:4) who writes, “A married woman who became
pregnant in a bathtub from another man’s sperm does not become
forbidden to her husband because only an act of forbidden inter-
course renders her forbidden to her husband, whereas sperm that
became fertilized in her uterus without intercourse does not forbid
her. Proof for this can be cited from the comments of Rabbenu Peretz
quoted by the Bach (Yoreh De’ah, 195): “Rabbenu Peretz was asked,
why is a menstruating woman allowed to lie on her husband’s sheets
whereas she may not lay on sheets upon which another man slept,
lest she become pregnant from the other man’s sperm? Why need she
not be concerned that she may conceive from her husband’s sperm
while she is menstruating and her child will be the son of a niddah?
He responded [that] since there is no act of forbidden intercourse
the child is completely kosher even if she became pregnant from a
stranger’s sperm, for Ben Sira1 was kosher. The problem in regard to

1. This is explained earlier, in siman 250 s.v.‘The Tashbatz writes.’

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