Question:
My daughter became pregnant with IVF from a Goya donor’s egg, the baby, The baby is being carried and nourished in her womb. Does the baby need to go through a mikveh? the baby is a boy and of course we will give him a bris at the time?
Answer:
Well done to you for worrying about your grandson’s future, your question is very important.
In this question, the great poskim of the last generation argued on whether the baby is attributed in terms of nationality, to the surrogate mother or to the mother that donated the egg. Some wrote that the mother who owns the egg is thw real mother, while the surrogate mother is only like an incubator, but some have written that the surrogate mother who gives the life to the baby at all stages of development is the real mother, while the mother with the egg serves only as an assistant to the creation of the baby but is not defined as a mother.
In the sources I will mention the opinions of the poskim in this regard. It is important to note that we did not receive a clear decision on this matter from the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and in his name different opinions were expressed as brought by his son Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef Shalita.
In fact, the poskim agreed that since this question is in dispute without a clear decision, since the most important thing is to make sure the baby is Jewish by all accounts, the baby should go through ‘gayrut lehumrah’.
Therefore, when the baby is born ‘bezrat hashem’, you should me do the bris has an the eight day ‘lesham mitzvas millah’ and also for ‘mitzvas gayrus’ And baptize the baby in the mikveh in front of three judges, as a ‘ger’ who baptizes him on the opinion of a ‘bais din’.
You shall see a lot of nachas from all your children and grandchildren.
Sources and reasoning
