Saturday, October 22, 2011

On surrogate motherhood

Hi,

"To use another person as an 'incubator' and then take from her the child she carried and delivered for a fee is a revolting degradation of maternity and an affront to human dignity."

(Lord R’ Immanuel Jakobovitz, public statement, cited by R' J. David Bleich in Contemporary Halakhic Problems Vol. 1 pg. 106)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

2 comments:

  1. I understand R'Jakobovitz's outrage.On the other hand for childless couples for whom this is the only way to have children that outrage must be tempered by rachmanut. Of course there remain many halachic questions FI who is the real mother and all the applications of motherhood in determining the Jewishness of the baby, petter rechem ldin pidyon haben etc. AIUI these questions remain unresolved and are makhloket ha poskim

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  2. Indeed, they are very much sharui b'machloket.

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