Donating sperm to a single woman is immoral, even though the halakhic
problems related to donating sperm are “resolvable,” because the child
“will be miserable” only having a mother.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner
Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Comes Out Against Sperm Donation To Older Single Women
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner is the head of the Ateret Yerushalayim Yeshiva and a leading Zionist Orthodox posek, decisor of Jewish law.
In his weekly couples lesson, Aviner reportedly taught that he believes that donating sperm to a single woman is immoral, even though the halakhic problems related to donating sperm are “resolvable,” because the child “will be miserable” only having a mother.
Aviner did not cite any reputable psychological data to back up his opinion.
Aviner also claims – again without a shred of scientific evidence to back him up – that not having a father because your mother got pregnant through artificial insemination could even be worse than a young child having his father die, because at least the child still has a father figure to remember and look up to.
"What should an older woman who has yet to marry, and whose biological clock is ticking, do? Should she accept a sperm donation? There is an insolvable problem: It's immoral toward the child. A child needs a father and a mother. That's how God Almighty created his world. We know that there are widows and there is also divorce – but that is a real tragedy. One must not organize such a situation in advance. There are also single mothers who had a child out of wedlock, but that is a given situation as well. But a child needs a loving father and mother…We understand that the girl wants to get married and can't wait to give love to a cute little creature – but why create a single-parent family in advance? The child will be miserable. It's sometimes even worse than a dead father, because in that case at least the child has a father figure. The same applies for divorce – he (the father) is here, he is there. And in this case the child has nothing,” Aviner noted, adding that children born through sperm donation, "often wake up at night and cry, 'Father, Father.'"
So?
What is Aviner’s solution to the problem of an aging single woman who wants to be married, wants to have children, but who can’t find a husband?
It’s simple, Aviner says, but not cheap.
The woman should freeze her eggs.
"It does cost NIS 25,000 [about $6,500], and that's a lot of money, but a child is also worth a million shekels, and let's hope that she gets married,” Aviner said.