Alegria Vaz Mouyal

Project title

Jewish Perspecives to Fertility treatments 

Project description 

Attitudes towards Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) mirror an individual’s attitudes and values; they often challenge a person to question their ethical limits when deciding which treatment is more appropriate. Orthodox Jews are defined as such partly because they adhere stringently to the corpus of Jewish Halakhic practice, and this is particularly relevant with regards to procreation. This research project discusses views of Orthodox Jewish scholars and women to various ART, including IVF, gamete donation, surrogacy and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for sex selection and medical reasons and treatments for homosexual couples and single women. In general, Jewish law is accepting of the benefits that these treatments provide. Often, decisions are made for each couple based on their unique circumstances by their scholar. A deeper understanding of the theoretical and religious background is useful when counselling or treating couples and single women with an Orthodox Jewish background.

Start date

04/2016

Primary supervisor 

Prof Joyce Harper

Based at

Chenies Mews

Links

ORCID
Research Gate