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255: A CHILDLESS MAN
REQUESTS IN HIS WILL
THAT HIS WIFE BE
INSEMINATED WITH
HIS SPERM AFTER HIS
D E AT H

ɳ Question

I would like to know how the Torah guides us in handling the follow-
ing case, which is presently under my care.

A young man was stricken with malignant disease, lo aleinu (may
we be spared). Before he began radiation treatment he deposited
some of his sperm in the freezer so that he could leave offspring, be-
cause as of yet he had not been able to have children. Tragically, the
young man passed away. In his testament he asked his wife to consent
to perpetuate him by agreeing to have a child using the semen he left
behind, in order that his name should not be obliterated from among
the Jewish people. The following questions arise:

1. Is the woman under obligation to fulfill her late husband’s will, or
perhaps it is forbidden, or undesirable for her to do so?

2. I would also like to clarify what the woman should do if she took
an oath to her husband when he was alive to fulfill his testament?

Dr. Joel Englard, Specialist in Infertil-
ity, Afulah

60 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein