Surrogacy in the Holy Land

Assisted Reproductive Technologies, or ART for short, as well as surrogacy has been banned or limited according to certain restrictions in a number of nations. In particular, states in America do not have uniform policies nationwide regarding the usage of ART as well as surrogacy.  However, over in the Middle-Eastern country of Israel, fertilization technologies to help those seeking to birth children in this non-traditional manner is actually state funded and allows for single mothers, lesbian couples, and heterosexual couples to birth children by way of surrogacy. Even though it is hypothetically  “possible” for anyone in the states seeking children to find surrogates, whether it be their home state or another state that allows it, there are issues with who has access to these technologies. Therefore, it is important to look at different intersections of race, class, and sexuality, within the states only allows those who are of the most privileged status access to reproductive technologies. France Winddance Twine in Outsourcing the Womb says that "class inequalities, the legacies of racial slavery,and gender segregation in the labor market structure the global surrogacy industry" (19). While it seems as though that state-funded institutions that offer access to them for all U.S. citizens could potentially alleviate these problems, Israel, a country that actually does offer state funding falls short in providing everyone with equal access to ART. Like the U.S. there are implications based upon people within religious, racial, and sexual minorities according to accessibility of ART.

Because surrogacy is not legal in all American states, only those who are more wealthy can seek out ART services.Twine, describes the class inequalities that dictates these procedures. Those who can purchase reproductive services do so at an expense to those women who usually provide their reproductive services for those who can't conceive. Twine explains that becoming a surrogate for women who are apart of lower-middle class statuses is an "alternative option to working jobs that provide comparable wages, especially for women who are mothers of young children, the wives of active military duty or who have neither the time nor economic resources to return to school to obtain an advanced degree or professional training" (19). Issues of class inequality are pushed to the forefront of issues concerning surrogacy within American culture. This class inequality that is brought to light through reproductive services isn't something that pops up in Israeli culture.

Currently, in Israel, the male, gay couples are not permitted access to IVF services. Here is the official law passed in 1996 regarded surrogacy in Israel. According to France Windance  Twine , “while lesbians or unmarried heterosexual women can form families with the support of the Israeli government, these services are  not available to gay men, who must purchase procreative material and services outside of Israel” (26). It is not discussed by Twine but perhaps the reason that underlies this is that Judaism is a matrilineal religion. Jewish children are determined by the background of the mother. If only the father is Jewish, then the child technically not Jewish according to strict Jewish law. This is described in a Global Post article from 2010, "religious leaders say that the birth mother must be single and Jewish to ensure the baby is Jewish. Same goes for the egg donor" (Evan Pondel).But, because the majority of Israeli citizens are secular, why must this be a matter of concern which must be regulated by the government? 

Because homosexual men in Israel must go overseas in order to hire a surrogate, there have been some sticky situations. One popular destination is the country of Thailand. Recently, this past January, 65 babies brought into this world through surrogacy for Israeli parents were stuck in Thailand. This happened because according to Thai law, the surrogate mother is the baby's actual mother. This makes it so that getting issued a passport for the baby to get to Israel can be seen as abduction. An article from an Israeli news source, Haaretz, explains that "the existing legislation grants citizenship to any child born to a Thai mother and gives her custody, creating ambiguity". Perhaps these issues could be avoided if gay men in Israeli were allowed access to surrogacy services provided by the Israeli government. A bill was proposed in March which would allow gay couples to access to surrogacy within Israel. After scouring the internet for the last half hour, I have not been able to find any updates on whether or not this amendment has passed.

Not only are gay men discriminated against by their lack of rights regarding surrogacy, but everyone in Israel is affected by the current laws. Race discrimination plays another huge part of these issues. Law in Israeli do  not permit non-Jews to marry Jews legally. Besides the mixing of religions, the law also does not permit the intermingling of races. Therefore, if you are an Arab living in Israel, you could only obtain a surrogate or invitro- fertilization through a fellow Arab. It's really interesting to compare this scenario to what happens in the United States. Even though the United States does not have national laws preventing races from mixing by way of surrogacy, discrimination of people of color is still pertinent.  One such discriminatory situation in the U.S. described in Outsourcing the Womb described a Black Woman who was seeking fertility services but was told by the White doctor that "informed her that he didn't have any Black sperm donors so he couldn't offer her any sperm or IVF treatments" (35).  Although this does not have to do with surrogacy directly, there was a recent incident in which the Israeli government admitted to sterilizing Ethiopian immigrants.

The racist sterilization of Ethiopian immigrants raises questions for me. In fact, in attempting to write this blog post, I have only discovered that thinking about surrogacy policies raised more questions to me then the answers I received.  If Israel uses their state funds to provide for fertilization treatments and surrogate mothers, then what are it's birth control policies? Israel is pronatalist, meaning that human reproduction is widely encouraged. Since this is the case, how easy is it for women who want birth control access it? When trying to answer this question, I only discovered multiple articles about women Ethiopian immigrants being sterilized. Issues of race surrounding reproductive rights are both central to American and Israeli practices. What's fascinating to me is that birth control, which plenty of women in America do have access to, is the antithesis of a pronatalist policy. America doesn't fund surrogacy which raises questions of class inequalities within our capitalistic marketplace. But then, when thinking about Israeli policies, class inequalities come into question when thinking about homosexual men who have to go abroad  in order to support their dreams of raising a family, and only those who have the money can partake in this. Also, discrimination of sexual orientation is also exposed by the study of surrogacy in Israel and America.

I want to make it clear that I am not condemning either Israel and America for their policies. Instead, I just wanted to utilize this blog in order to help myself understand the complex issues of delving into the policies and thoughts that surround ART.

I am hoping that I will be able to answer my questions surrounding women's access to birth control this summer when I intern in the city of Tel Aviv for two months.This information is not available in mainstream news sources, so hopefully I will be able to engage in conversations with Israeli's who face issues surrounding surrogacy and other reproductive services. I shall keep you all updated during my travels.