Land of Milk, Honey, and IVF
More than four percent of Israeli births came via test tube
April 30, 2012
(enlerk/Flickr)
Not that we didn’t already know this, but there’s yet more evidence that Israel is lapping the rest of the world in in vitro fertilizations. A new report from the Health Ministry found that fully 4.1 percent of all births in Israel in 2010 were derived from IVF—quite a leap even from 2.5 percent in 1997 and 3.3 percent in 2005. This figure is also twice as many as second place (Iceland).
In Tablet Magazine, more than a year ago, columnist Michelle Goldberg explored Israel’s enthusiasm and unique state support for fertility technology (among other things, its universal health care covers unlimited IVF for a woman up to two live children); later, scientist Rebecca Steinfeld discussed the historical, philosophical, political, and religious bases for these policies, and reported that even Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, was permitted to father a child—this time without technology, and instead via conjugal visits—despite being in (otherwise) solitary confinement. And Simone Gorrindo noted that this web of commitments makes the abortion question particularly thorny in the Jewish State.
Number of IVF Births Doubles Within Decade [Ynet]
Related: Where Families Are Prized, Help Is Free [NYT]
Made in Heaven [Tablet Magazine]
Birth Right [Tablet Magazine]
Fruitful [Tablet Magazine]
Reconceived [Tablet Magazine]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
