For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 36
To download, click/tap here: PDF
All of our discussions in Masechet Yevamot open with the premise that the brother who passed away had no children; if he did have children, the mitzva of yibum would never come into effect. The first Mishnah in the fourth perek (35b) presents a situation where the widow is left pregnant. In such a case, we must wait and see whether the unborn child is viable. If she gives birth to a child who lives, there is no need for yibum; if the child does not survive, then the normal rule of yibum will apply.
We explore posthumous paternity in halacha (R. David Bleich) as well as Schenker’s article on the status of an embryo in halacha.
as well as a legal analysis of the notion of viability:Viability is an incoherent legal concept as it is currently featured in US law and in the legal framework in England and Wales.
Viability is frequently ill-defined and presumed from a point in gestation before the fetus has a reasonable chance of survival, thus undermining the (limited) logic behind the use of viability in determining the protection afforded to unborn entities.