Sperm Donation

Greetings and blessings

Sperm donation to a sperm bank is absolutely forbidden according to halacha for many understandable reasons. The reasons for this are numerous, and I will detail a few. First of all, the opinion of many is that the child born as a result of fertilization is regarded as the son of the sperm donor, and thus the child will have an unknown father. This is prohibited in the Talmud (Yevamot 41a) to give birth to children of unknown paternity, and the Jewish people are assured that Hashem will eradicate such children from among Israel, as required by the scripture (Ezekiel 20) "I will purge from among you the rebels and those who transgress against Me," and our sages interpret (Nedarim 20b) Rabbi Levi said: these are the children of confusion [therefore the children born as a result of this 'donation' cannot lead a proper life].

Additionally, another argument stated is that there could be serious consequences if in the future a man and woman, both born from this sperm bank, marry each other, and they may actually be siblings sharing the same father who donated sperm to the bank. As is known, this probability is not remote because in artificial fertilization, a procedure is done to achieve conception, and many dimensions can be involved in this; thousands of women can conceive from a few sperm donors' donations. Statistically, a single fertile man can potentially father four hundred children in a week, or twenty thousand children in a year, and in such a terrifying scenario, the fear that a brother may marry a sister is close to being a reality, which could lead to immorality filling the land [and there is also a certain probability that a child born from bank sperm will seek a partner from a similar source, thus marrying a sister unknowingly].

Besides the aforementioned, there are additional reasons to firmly prohibit this abomination, and according to Torah law, the prohibition applies to all parties involved, from the sperm donor to the treating physician and the woman who agrees to conceive from such alien and strange sperm, in addition to the fact that the sperm donor receives monetary payment from the physician for this purpose.

A child born from sperm donation has no lineage as his father is unknown, but he is not considered a mamzer. When he wishes to marry, he must ensure that the bride is not his sister, since his paternity is unknown.

Best of luck - Menashe Israel