Jewish Law Regarding the Status of Parents Under Jewish Law

The issue of the parents and family status is very important because it raises concerns about the religion of the child. Different branches of Judaism such as Orthodox and Reform impact the new cloned individual differently. The Conservative and Orthodox movements go according to Jewish law which states that if the mother is Jewish then the child is Jewish. However, in the Reform Movement, if either parent is Jewish and the child is brought up Jewish, then the child is considered to be Jewish.

The genetic donor or the mother who is carrying the fetus in her womb might not be Jewish and this complicates matters. Still, even if the donor woman and the birth mother are both Jewish and religion is not of concern, the identity of the mother is of great concern in the Jewish community. Reproductive cloning is still relatively new and there has not yet been one decisive answer under Jewish law distinguishing who the mother will be. Jewish law is currently leaning toward declaring that the fetus carrier or gestational woman is the mother of the person because she has been carrying the fetus and gives birth to it. Many authorities of Jewish law hold this viewpoint including Rabbi Michael Broyde who has written several extensive articles on the subject matter. Some halachic authorities believe that the genetic donor is the real mother because the cloned individual shares the same DNA and characteristics as the genetic donor woman.

Finally, Rabbi Bleich believes that both women can be the mother of the cloned individual. Rabbi Bleich's opinion is that since both women play a vital role in the formation of the person and the bringing of the cloned individual into this world, then both women should be considered the mothers of the child.

According to Jewish authorities of halachic law, a major reason why they have been delaying for so long in making a final decision on who the real mother of the cloned child will be is because Jewish authorities want to view the full scope of scientific evidence and data. The real mother might ultimately be determined by how much of a role the genetic material of the donor woman impacts the cloned individual. Jewish authorities have said that if the mitochondrial DNA is prevalent and of a significant amount in the clone, then the position that authorities hold on the real mother will have to be re-evaluated. Jewish law does not define the status of the donor woman but if the scientific evidence proves that the donor woman plays a significant role in the life of a cloned person, then the donor woman might be considered the child's mother.

Another issue that rabbinical scholars face is the perception that cloning conflicts with the image of God being the all powerful creator. Once again, rabbis have concurred that there is still tremendous awe at God's power and ability to create the world from nothing. To this day, scholars still admire God's power and they attempt to answer life's difficult questions such as the purpose of a human life. While the almighty power of God is not to be undermined, it is permissible under Jewish law to improve the quality of life through technological advancement. However, the benefits derived from the development of that technology such as cloning or stem cell research must outweigh the detriments it causes.