Precedent: Lesbian surrogacy approved
Health Ministry authorizes lesbian couple to create common child; egg to be taken from one of them, fertilized and implanted into womb of the other
Until now, same-sex partners could build a family unit with an anonymous sperm donor or a sperm donor that the couple knows, according to the regulation of in vitro fertilization. The precedent in this case is that one of the partners will serve as a surrogate mother to the fetus of her partner.
The two women have been partners for over 10 years, and two years ago they decided to bring a child into the world. One of the women said that the decision to create a fetus that was common to both of them "originated from ideological reasons. We already thought about it two years ago, but it wasn't legal back then. We realized that a medical intervention was necessary, and this time it was possible."
The two addressed the legal advisor of the Health Ministry, Attorney Mira Hivner-Harel, who authorized the process. According to her "we determined that we see this couple as a family unit, a family entity, as was also ruled in similar cases in the Supreme Court regarding the lesbian family unit. We, in the Health Ministry, are very open in terms of the right to parenthood."
The Health Ministry's decision relies on two types of legislation: Regulations of in vitro fertilization that allow to carry out the fertilization process from the egg of one of the partners, and the bill that allows the donation of the eggs valid as of today. The law in Israel authorizes to take eggs only from women who undergo such procedures, for personal use and as donation.
Will have to undergo adoption
However, since the "egg theft" affair, in which Prof. Zion Ben-Rafael was convicted for taking eggs from his patients and financially profited by selling them, there are almost no such donations.In the process of approving the bill, there will be a special committee that will authorize the donation of a non-anonymous egg from a woman to her girlfriend or to a family member.
Hivner-Harel said that despite the fact that this case is the first of its kind, it is not a precedent that can be used for all lesbian couples to become pregnant this way and the Health Ministry will keep examining every case by itself.
She added that was tipped the scale in favor of this particular couple was that one of the women had fertility problems, who would have had to use the donation of an egg in any case in order to get pregnant.
Since this case is different from a "regular" case of surrogacy, which the law determined that the one donating the egg is the biological mother of the baby, the Health Ministry made the opposite decision.
"The child belongs to the mother who carried the fetus, as is accepted by Jewish law. However, genetically, the fetus belongs to the second mother. Following the birth, they will have to go through an adoption process, so that both mothers will have legal cutody."
Elad Tene contributed to the report
