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conception from a stranger’s sperm is that we need there to be “dis-
tinction” [i.e. we must have certain knowledge of the child’s lineage; a
widow or divorcee may therefore not remarry within three months of
her husband’s death or her divorce, in case she is pregnant and when
she gives birth we won’t know whether this is the child of her first
husband or her second husband], lest the child end up marrying his
paternal sister.”

This resolves both of our doubts:
1. A married woman who becomes pregnant from the sperm of a
stranger is not forbidden to her husband because the sole concern of
her lying on the sheets upon which a stranger slept is because of the
need to distinguish whose child she is carrying but the woman is not
forbidden to her husband.
2. The child is kosher, for Ben Sira was kosher. Rabbenu Peretz
too, does not forbid lying on sheets upon which a stranger slept be-
cause the resulting child will be a mamzer but because of our concern
that there should be “distinction.”
This apparently constitutes proof that a married woman who was
artificially inseminated with donor sperm does not become forbidden
to her husband and that her child will be kosher.
However some opinions maintain that artificial insemination can-
not be compared to bath tub impregnation or to impregnation result-
ing from lying on a sheet upon which a stranger had slept. In the latter
two cases neither the owner of the sperm nor the woman who became
pregnant from it ever intended that she become pregnant, whereas in
artificial insemination both the donor and the woman intend that she
become pregnant, so the woman may possibly become forbidden to
her husband like a sotah. All the more so since the Torah writes,“And
into your colleague’s wife do not place your semen to impregnate her,
to defile yourself with her” (Vayikra 18:20). See the Ramban’s com-
mentary (ibid.) where he writes,“…possibly it says‘to impregnate her’
so as to mention the reason for this prohibition, [namely,] because
it will not be known whose child it is and as a result, great and evil
abominations will come upon both of them. This is not mentioned
[by the Torah] in [connection with] the punishment [for this sin]

38 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein