Illegitimate Offspring

◆ A recent court decision in the United States ruled that a husband’s consent to artificial insemination of his wife by another man’s semen does not render the child legitimate in New York State. Reporting on the decision, The United States Law Week of August 13, 1963, said: “The concept that historically is deeply imbedded in the law is that a child who is begotten through a father who is not the mother’s husband is deemed to be illegitimate. Unless some statute changes this doctrine, ‘it must be presumed that the historical concept of illegitimacy with respect to such a child remains in force and effect.’ There is no statute.” The opinion of the New York Superior Court, Kings County (Gursky v. Gursky, August 2, 1963), said: “Where the precise issue of legitimacy has been squarely presented for determination, it has been held that heterologous artificial insemination by a third party donor, with or without the consent of the husband, constitutes adultery on the part of the father, and that a child so conceived is not a child born in wedlock and is therefore illegitimate.”

Scripturally, a woman who consents to artificial insemination is in substance committing adultery, and if her husband consented to the practice, he would also be approving of an adulterous course. Artificial insemination is out of harmony with God’s law.—Matt. 7:17-20; 1 Cor. 6:9-11.