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. 2016 Jun 14:2:16-23.
doi: 10.1016/j.rbms.2016.05.004. eCollection 2016 Jun.

Thirty-five years of assisted reproductive technologies in Israel

Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli  1
Affiliations

Thirty-five years of assisted reproductive technologies in Israel

Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli. Reprod Biomed Soc Online. .

Abstract

Israel is known as a pronatalist country. Whether due to the Biblical commandment to 'be fruitful and multiply' or the traumas of the Holocaust and perennial wars, reproduction is a central life goal for most Israelis. Israeli women bear substantially more children than their counterparts in industrialized countries and view child-rearing as a key life accomplishment. These personal world-view and real-life individual quests take place in a context of equally pronatalist state policies and religious openness to assisted reproductive technologies. In this paper, I outline 35 years of assisted reproductive technologies in Israel by tracing a principal axis in the development of three major technologies of assisted reproduction: the proliferation of IVF-ICSI; the globalization of gamete donation; and the privatization of surrogacy. The paper is based on a policy analysis as well as various studies of assisted reproductive technologies, conducted in Israel over this period.

Keywords: IVF; Israel; privatization; reproductive technologies; surrogacy; third-party reproduction.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of IVF cycles per year in Israel.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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