Medical Ethics Society Discusses Surrogate Motherhood
Michael Barer
Issue date: 5/7/07 Section: News
On Wednesday April 25, the Student Medical Ethics Society brought together Rabbi Kenneth Brander, Dean of the Center for the Jewish Future, and Dr. Adrienne Asch, Director of the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University, to speak about surrogate motherhood. The presentation took on the issue from two sides: Dr. Asch gave a secular basis to the issue of surrogacy in general and Rabbi Brander took that and expanded on it to show how various situations would be resolved according to Jewish law.
Dr. Asch started off the evening by speaking at length about the two basic secular approaches that are taken in regard to a surrogate mother. One way to look at it would be like any other business deal; there would be a contract and the surrogate mother would be expected to adhere to the agreement, and would get paid. A different approach would be that it is impossible for the surrogate mother to separate her feelings and emotions from the baby and that no contract should be made so that the surrogate mother should not be forced to give up the baby.
Once Dr. Asch laid out the ground work in secular thought, Rabbi Brander took the podium to explain the Jewish approach to surrogate motherhood. A basic point that he reiterated throughout his speech was that in no way is there a question of whether surrogacy is a legitimate practice according to the Torah. In fact, he said, "surrogacy is a celebration of being partners with God." Rabbi Brander went on to say that it is not an obligation to try surrogacy if a couple is having problems conceiving, but there is certainly no problem with it.
One of the main points that Rabbi Brander dealt with was: who is the mother according to Torah Law? Surprisingly, there are no less than four different views ranging from an opinion that the child would have two mothers to no mother at all. The normative approach, according to Rabbi Brander, is that the host mother would be considered the real mother. Rabbi Elyashiv, perhaps the foremost scholar of our time in Jewish law, takes this view as well and agrees that the host mother would be considered the real mother. This decision has wider ramifications than one might think at first glance, such as in situations where the egg donor is a non-Jew. Although the child would be considered Jewish according to the majority of Rabbis, everyone agrees that he should go through a conversion so there shouldn't be a situation where there are Jews that are only Jewish according to some people.
There were a number of questions asked at the end of the evening as well. An interesting question that was brought up was: in the event that the donor was a married woman, how does this play out in regard to the status of the baby? Rabbi Brander replied that Rabbi Moshe Feinstein laid down a ruling that as long as there is no physical intimacy between the two people who are forbidden to each other, the baby would have the status of a regular Jew.
As the evening came to a close, the intricacies of the details were not lost on the crowd as many people approached the front table to speak with both Dr. Asch and Rabbi Brander. Although this was the last event of the year for the Student Medical Ethics Society, we can be sure that there will be plenty of interesting events to look forward to next year.
Dr. Asch started off the evening by speaking at length about the two basic secular approaches that are taken in regard to a surrogate mother. One way to look at it would be like any other business deal; there would be a contract and the surrogate mother would be expected to adhere to the agreement, and would get paid. A different approach would be that it is impossible for the surrogate mother to separate her feelings and emotions from the baby and that no contract should be made so that the surrogate mother should not be forced to give up the baby.
Once Dr. Asch laid out the ground work in secular thought, Rabbi Brander took the podium to explain the Jewish approach to surrogate motherhood. A basic point that he reiterated throughout his speech was that in no way is there a question of whether surrogacy is a legitimate practice according to the Torah. In fact, he said, "surrogacy is a celebration of being partners with God." Rabbi Brander went on to say that it is not an obligation to try surrogacy if a couple is having problems conceiving, but there is certainly no problem with it.
One of the main points that Rabbi Brander dealt with was: who is the mother according to Torah Law? Surprisingly, there are no less than four different views ranging from an opinion that the child would have two mothers to no mother at all. The normative approach, according to Rabbi Brander, is that the host mother would be considered the real mother. Rabbi Elyashiv, perhaps the foremost scholar of our time in Jewish law, takes this view as well and agrees that the host mother would be considered the real mother. This decision has wider ramifications than one might think at first glance, such as in situations where the egg donor is a non-Jew. Although the child would be considered Jewish according to the majority of Rabbis, everyone agrees that he should go through a conversion so there shouldn't be a situation where there are Jews that are only Jewish according to some people.
There were a number of questions asked at the end of the evening as well. An interesting question that was brought up was: in the event that the donor was a married woman, how does this play out in regard to the status of the baby? Rabbi Brander replied that Rabbi Moshe Feinstein laid down a ruling that as long as there is no physical intimacy between the two people who are forbidden to each other, the baby would have the status of a regular Jew.
As the evening came to a close, the intricacies of the details were not lost on the crowd as many people approached the front table to speak with both Dr. Asch and Rabbi Brander. Although this was the last event of the year for the Student Medical Ethics Society, we can be sure that there will be plenty of interesting events to look forward to next year.
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