Assisted Reproduction in Israel

Avishalom Westreich is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) of Jewish Law, Family Law, and Jurisprudence, at the College of Law and Business in Ramat Gan and a Research Fellow at the Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought at Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, at Harvard Law School (Fall 2017), a Helen Gartner Hammer Scholar-in-Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University (Fall 2016), and a research fellow at the Agunah Research Unit at the University of Manchester (2007-2008). His research deals primarily with the dramatic changes in the family during the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. His previous publications include No-Fault Divorce in the Jewish Tradition (2014 [Hebrew]) and Talmud-Based Solutions to the Problem of the Agunah (Agunah Research Unit, vol. 4, 2012).

Abstract; Introduction;

Chapter 1. The Right to Procreate in Surrogacy and Egg Donation: Legal Arrangements, Difficulties, and Challenges:

I. Background

II. Surrogacy and Egg Donation: Restricted Openness

A. Preserving the Traditional, Heterosexual Family Structure

B. The Centrality of Genetic Connections

C. Protecting Religious Interests

III. Proposals for Changing the Current Legal Situation

Chapter 2. The Right to Posthumous Procreation:

I. Background

II. The Parents' Right to Posthumous Fertilization

III. The Future of the Parents' Right to Posthumous Fertilization: Two Concepts of the Right to Procreation

A. The Supreme Court vs. Proposed Legislation: Two Concepts

B. The Ancient Predecessor of the Two-Concepts Model

IV. Posthumous Fertilization: Modern Jewish Law

V. Summary

Chapter 3. Conceptual Implications of the Modern Right to Procreate:

I. Background

II. Israeli Family Law Concepts of Parenthood: Considerate Functionalism

III. Jewish Law Concepts of Parenthood in the Israeli Context

IV. Conclusions: Functional Parenthood and Conceptual Dynamism

Chapter 4. The Modern Right to Procreate: Basic Jewish Law Approaches:

I. Background

II. Areas of Tension

III. Jewish Law under Societal Pressure

IV. Closing Remarks.