Are you my Mother? Surrogate Pregnancy in Halacha

The Rabbis taught in a Braita: There are three partners in the creation of a person: the Holy One, blessed be He, the father, and the mother. The father seeds the white substance (semen) from which the bones, sinew, nails, brain, and white of the eye are formed. The mother seeds the red substance from which the skin, flesh, hair, and black and white of the eye are formed. And the Holy One, blessed be He, places in him the spirit of life, the soul, the facial countenance, eyesight, hearing, the power of speech and walking, and insight and understanding.

Rava challenged it from a Braita, which states: Because of this decree, a male convert and a female convert who are married prior to their conversion must wait 3 months after the conversion before resuming relations so that we will know whether she was pregnant prior to the conversion. Now, if the purpose of the decree is to distinguish between the offspring of the first husband and that of the second, it should not apply in this case for here, what is there to distinguish between? She was married to the same man both before and after the conversion. The Gemara answers, here too, in the case of converts it is necessary to distinguish between offspring that was conceived in sanctity and offspring that was not conceived in sanctity.

And Antoninos said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: From when is the soul placed in a person? Is it from the moment of conception or from the moment of the formation of the embryo, forty days after conception? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: It is from the moment of the formation of the embryo. Antoninos said to him: That is inconceivable. Is it possible that a piece of meat could stand for even three days without salt as a preservative and would not rot? The embryo could not exist for forty days without a soul. Rather, the soul is placed in man from the moment of conception. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: Antoninos taught me this matter, and there is a verse that supports him, as it is stated: “And Your Providence [pekudatekha] has preserved my spirit” (Job 10:12) indicating that it is from the moment of conception [pekida] that the soul is preserved within a person.

Come and learn, two brother twin converts and so too freed slaves they do not perform Chalitzah and not Yevamah and are not liable due to sleeping with the others wife (post-marriage). If their conception was before conversion and their birth afterward they do not perform Chalitzah and not Yevamah and but are liable due to sleeping with the others wife (post-marriage). If conception and birth was after conversion, they are Israelites for all matters.

(7) And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was of beautiful form and fair to look on; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

“For she had neither father nor mother…And when her father and mother died” (Esther 2:7). Why did it need to say this again? Aha said: When her mother became pregnant with her, her father died; when she was born, her mother died. “And when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her for his own daughter” (Esther 2:7)

And when she was born her mother died - and it was not seen to call her mother.

And if she is pregnant, until forty days from conception the fetus is merely water. (It is not yet considered a living being, and therefore it does not disqualify its mother from partaking of teruma.)