Itai Pinkas. Yearning to be a dad
Photo: Osnat Krasnansky
Attorney Dori Spivak. Submitting petition
Gay couple petitions High Court for surrogacy rights
Yoav and Itai will ask State to allow them to become parents through surrogacy. According to them, law is out-dated and discriminatory. 'There is no reason we shouldn't enjoy parenthood like any other couple,' they say
A same-sex couple will petition the High Court on Wednesday with a request that the State be ordered to allow them to become parents through surrogacy.
The two men, Yoav Arad Pinkas and Itai Pinkas, both 37, will ask the court to order the committee for authorizing fetus carrying arrangements within the Health Ministry to recognize them as parents under the Surrogacy Law.
In their petition, they will claim that despite having all medical authorizations, the committee refused to recognize them because the Surrogacy Law stipulates that parents are necessarily a man and a woman.
According to their claim, there is no essential reason not to interpret the law as being applicable to man and man as well.
"The language of the law was born of an archaic reality that has undergone a comprehensive change in the past decade and a half that have passed since the law was legislated," they wrote in their petition, which will be submitted through Attorney Dori Spivak, from the Tel Aviv University's law department.
In the past five years, the couple has tried various methods of becoming parents, many of which have required significant resources. A number of years ago, they tried to have a child with a woman. However, after about a year of in-vitro fertilization treatments, she had a miscarriage.
Regarding the option of using a surrogate mother from abroad, the couple will claim in their indictment that "this is a track riddled with hardships that is possible only for those with significant resources while depriving a couple from a low socio-economic level."
The two said on Tuesday that because of the hurdles in their path, they are left with no other choice but to turn to the High Court: "We are petitioning the High Court in order to rectify the wanton discrimination against us. There is no reason that as a married couple recognized by the State that we should not enjoy parenthood like any other couple."
The Pinkas' will ask the court to hold an early hearing on the issue because even if their petition is accepted by the court, they still face a long road until they will be able to exercise their right to become parents. They will claim in their case that because of their age, a delay of even a few months will cause them great suffering in light of their strong desire to be parents.
