Ova donation is a controversial issue that many rabbis are still pondering.  The main issue involved in ova donation is "who is the mother?" Is it the ova donator - the genetic mom or the one who carries and gives birth to the baby -the gestational mom?

Most orthodox rabbis tend to lean towards considering the gestational mother as the mother of the child, though there are those who interpret the Talmudic and Torah sources as defining the maternity on genetic basis.  Most orthodox rabbis recommend conversion of the child if the donor is not Jewish.  Utilizing a Jewish donor (if she is anonymous) may raise the problem of unwitting marriage between family members.

Rabbi Elliot Dorf of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism asserts that according to Conservative Judaism Ova donation is permissible. However, there has not been a definite ruling on who is considered the mother of the child, "Until the CJLS rules definitively on which woman is halachically the child's mother, the child should be converted unless it is known that both the donor and the bearing mother were Jewish."  In 1997 the committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism clarified their position on the religious status of the child born as a result of ova donation.  It maintained that the gestational mother determines the status of the child. Therefore, if the surrogate mother is not Jewish the child would need conversion.

Reform Judaism maintains that what determines the Jewishness of a child is not its genetic or gestational condition but the way he or she is brought up. Reform Judaism considers a child Jewish if one of his/her parents is Jewish and both parent and child formally identify with Judaism.

Conservative and Reform Rabbis differ in opinion from the Orthodox point of view.  Read more about the different therapies and the Jewish Perspective of the major streams of Judaism:

• Infertility Therapies: Jewish Perspective
• Sperm Testing
• In Vitro Fertilization
• Artificial Insemination
• Ovum Donation
• Surrogacy