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his sperm was still in the test tube, his wife needs to do chalitzah or
yibum, because the deceased passed away “without a child.”

If this assumption is correct we must inevitably conclude that if
a widow is inseminated with semen left by her dead husband and
goes on to give birth to a son, this son does not absolve her from
chalitzah. This is because it is not possible that a woman whom the
Torah allows to do yibum [upon the death of her childless husband]
should later become forbidden to her yavam upon the birth of a child
who is the product of insemination [whether the wife herself was in-
seminated with the sperm or another single woman]. This is because
it is written, “Its ways [i.e. of the Torah] are the ways of pleasantness
and all its paths lead to peace” (Mishlei 3:17) and this case is akin to
the gemara in Yevamos (87b) that says that if a man left a son and
later the son died, his widow is not required to have yibum or chal-
itzah because it says, “Its ways are the ways of pleasantness.” Rashi
explains,“This woman, who had a son and did not require yibum and
who married another man and then her son died – if we say that she
[now] requires chalitzah, she will be disgraced in her husband’s eyes.
It must therefore be [i.e. this indicates that the Torah’s intention is]
that “without a child” depends only upon the moment of death and
[in this case] he did have a son [when he died].”

The same reasoning applies here too. It is impossible that a woman
whose husband left sperm in a sperm bank would be allowed to do
yibum and then, when a woman has been inseminated with the sperm
and a child is born, she should become forbidden to her husband the
yavam. It must therefore be that “without a child” refers solely to the
moment of death and a child born as the result of posthumous in-
semination does not absolve his mother from the obligation of doing
either chalitzah or yibum.

ɳ Summary and Conclusions

1. It appears that a son born from artificial insemination

56 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein