Kin, Gene, Community: Reproductive Technologies among Jewish Israelis, Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli, Yoram S. Carmeli

Israel is the only country in the world that offers free fertility treatments to nearly any woman who requires medical assistance. It also has the worlds highest per capita usage of in-vitro fertilization. Examining state policies and the application of reproductive technologies among Jewish Israelis, this volume explores the role of tradition and politics in the construction of families within local Jewish populations. The contributors—anthropologists, bioethicists, jurists, physicians and biologists—highlight the complexities surrounding these treatments and show how biological relatedness is being construed as a technology of power; how genetics is woven into the production of identities; how reproductive technologies enhance the policing of boundaries. Donor insemination, IVF and surrogacy, as well as abortion, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and human embryonic stem cell research, are explored within local and global contexts to convey an informed perspective on the wider Jewish Israeli environment.

List of Tables and Figures

Introduction: Reproductive Technologies among Jewish Israelis: Setting the Ground
Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli and Yoram S. Carmeli