Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel

摘要: There are more fertility clinics per capita in Israel than any other country the world. This phenomenon is not result of high rates infertility but centrality and political importance that Jewish community has placed on reproduction. It was this statistic prompted Susan Martha Kahn to embark an ethnographic study social uses, cultural meanings, contemporary rabbinic responses Israel's methods artificial To support her analytical perspectives draws interviews with unmarried Israeli women who using state-subsidised insemination get pregnant own experiences as a participant-observer clinics. After analysing kinship cosmology through close readings relevant traditional texts, she explains how new reproductive technologies have been accommodated even embraced by orthodox rabbis Israel. Above all, "Reproducing Jews" reveals explicitly valued resources Israel, whether they encouraged donate eggs for married when undergoing their treatments, privileged surrogate mothers surrogacy legislation, or reproduce autonomously via technologies. Unlike birth control, explains, insemination, ovum donation, in-vitro fertilisation subsidised national health insurance provided specialists emerged global leaders research development these As first scholarly account assisted conception multisited ethnography will contribute current anthropological debates studies. also interest those involved