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performed after the husband’s death does not absolve his
mother from chalitzah.5
2. The same halachah applies if a man dies leaving fertilized
eggs in a test tube (“test tube babies”) – even though the
embryo’s formation has already begun in some degree, since
further human intervention is still necessary [the embryo
must be implanted in to a human host] it is not considered

5. See sefer, He’aros on maseches Bechoros (19a) regarding ‘Yibum when He Left
Frozen Semen’ where Rav Y.S. Elyashiv writes, “I shall mention a question
that arose in our times – we rule that if a man’s brother dies leaving his wife
pregnant, she does not do yibum, for we expound ‘ben ayn lo, ayin alav,’ that she
should not do chalitzah. What will the halachah be in a situation that can arise
nowadays where the husband’s semen is frozen and insemination is performed
later? Will we say that here too, since his seed exists, she cannot do chalitzah?
Now, the Noda B’yehudah [Kama, Even Ha’ezer end of siman 69] discusses
the fact that the father’s sperm can fertilize an ovum for up to three days after
intercourse. Therefore, in a case where they had relations immediately before
he died such that fertilization took place after his death, what is her position in
regard to requiring yibum, for at the time of his death she was not yet pregnant
[and therefore requires yibum] or perhaps since the father’s sperm was ready to
fertilize the ovum that suffices [and she needs neither yibum nor chalitzah]? The
Noda B’yehudah concludes that since she was not yet pregnant [at the moment
of his death] and the fetus’ formation had not yet begun, it is logical that it
should certainly be regarded that he died “without a child” and she will require
yibum. Even though in all other respects the child [born from posthumous fer-
tilization] is regarded as the father’s offspring, in regard to yibum, she will still
require yibum because at the moment of his death he was without children. The
Acharonim take strong issue with the Noda B’yehudah, one of their arguments
being that if he is correct, who inherits the deceased? When yibum takes place,
the yavam who marries the widow inherits his brother but here, the child born
of posthumous fertilization is his father’s son and should inherit his father –
this is self contradictory.
It appears that in our case too, if we take on that a child born from a man’s
frozen sperm that was inseminated at a later time, is his father’s child in all
respects he is also his father’s son in regard to absolving his mother of yibum
and is included in the halachah of “ayin alav, investigate him.” The sperm should
therefore be destroyed and the woman should have chalitzah.

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