The effect of Jewish-Israeli family ideology on policy regarding reproductive technologies

INTRODUCTION It has often been argued that Israelis “do” bioethics – be it genetic engineering of crops, stem cell research, or embryo selection – “the Israeli way” (Prainsack and Firestine 2006). The Israeli approach differs from that of other nations, especially when contrasted with the dominant Western-Christian bioethical discourse with which Israeli bioethics constantly negotiates and compares itself. This chapter will focus on a specific bioethical field, that of assisted reproductive technology (ART), in which Israel is seen as uniquely permissive and groundbreaking in comparison with most other advanced liberal societies. There have been numerous efforts to explain this peculiarity (Birenbaum-Carmeli 2010; Ivry 2009; Kahn 2000; Lavi 2010; Prainsack and Firestine 2006; Weiss 2002). Complementing them, this chapter focuses on the perspective of the family, arguing that Jewish-Israeli family ideology plays a crucial role in shaping Israeli policy, and that this viewpoint, which has been somewhat neglected in previous research, offers an important contribution to the discussion. I will first present how kinship has generally been studied in relation to ART, and locate this chapter within this theoretical framework. I will then briefly portray Jewish-Israeli family norms and myths regarding family life, arguing that these depictions, whether real or ideally imagined, contribute to Israeli policy regarding various new reproductive technologies. Drawing on my own research as well as secondary literature, my three case studies will be: (a) selective abortions and the status of the embryo/fetus; (b) posthumous reproduction, focusing in particular on the subject of posthumous grandparents; and (c) preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for the purpose of creating sibling donors. Hence I will first examine commitments and obligations across two to three generations, and then between siblings of the same cohort. Since much of my previous research has focused on Israel and Germany, this chapter will be somewhat biased toward comparisons with German family ideology. I am not suggesting, however, that the German approach in particular is representative of a general Western family ideology. Obviously, many differences can be found among advanced liberal societies themselves. Rather, the level of analysis offered here is meant to outline the broad differences between Jewish-Israeli family ideology and other Western ideologies, of which the German one will be used as a primary example, highlighting at the same time its own singularity (Raz and Schiktanz 2016).