Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, was asked in recent days for a question regarding the in vitro fertilization scandal at Asuta Hospital, which resulted in a woman accidentally carrying the fetus of another couple in her womb.
In his letter, the chief rabbi writes that the issue of the parentage of a child carried by a surrogate mother has been discussed at length among rabbinical leaders and in halakhic literature.
The question is who is the child's mother: is it the mother whose egg was used to grow the embryo or is it the mother who carried the fetus in her womb and gave birth to the child?
The chief rabbi writes that the surrogate mother who gives birth to the child should be considered the biological mother. Therefore, the birth mother is the child's mother according to the Halakha.
The chief rabbi also points out in his answer that in the case of surrogacy, another question of genealogy arises, therefore it is necessary to continue to check and search for who the parents are who did the fertilization, in order to prevent the chance of incestuous marriages in the future.
At the end of his answer, the chief rabbi calls for people seeking help in matters of in vitro fertilization to only utilize institutions that operate according to the instructions of the chief rabbinate and where there is constant supervision to prevent cases such as occurred at Assuta Hospital.