Single mothers conceiving by sperm donation ‘unbelievably cruel’ to children, rabbis argue

Aug 18, 2008 / 05:00 am

Several rabbis at a Jerusalem religious conference on Wednesday criticized the practice of single mothers conceiving children by sperm donation. One rabbi blamed the practice for encouraging late marriage, while another characterized the conception of children by donated sperm as “unbelievably cruel.”

Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, a prominent figure in the Religious Zionism movement, made his remarks while speaking at the Tzohar Rabbinical Association. The organization is dedicated to advancing solidarity among Jews and promoting the rabbi’s role in the Israeli community, LifeSiteNews.com reports.

Conference speakers were asked to discuss the topic “family, generation gaps and the modern world.”

Rabbi Rabinowitz said it was “unimaginable” to intentionally bring an “orphaned child” into the world and charged women who did so as unfit to be a mother “for any human creature.”

“Whoever plans on having a baby like this by choice, just in order to fulfill her needs as a mother, has exceeded all evil and cruelty,” he argued.

At the same conference, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel blamed sperm donation for encouraging women to marry too late and also for disrupting family structure.

“There is no such thing as a single-parent family, just like there is no square that is a circle. A family consists of a father, mother, and children,” he asserted.

Catholics have also argued against sperm donation on the grounds that a child ought to have both a father and a mother. Pope Benedict XVI, addressing bioethical issues earlier this year, said “The two fundamental criteria for moral discernment in this field are: unconditional respect for the human being as a person, from conception to natural death; and respect for the origin of the transmission of human life through the acts of the spouses.”