The Birth of Surrogacy in Israel (review)

Israel's Surrogate Mother Agreements Act of 1996 is the most comprehensive, detailed legislation on the regulation of surrogacy contracts in the world. While many other countries have banned surrogacy, Israel is the only country where surrogacy is legal, remunerated, and government-supervised. This unique piece of legislation includes many restrictions imposed by Jewish law (halacha). Now celebrating its tenth anniversary and responsible for the birth of over 100 babies, the time has come to tell the story of how this law came into being.

This is exactly what D. Kelly Weisberg does in The Birth of Surrogacy in Israel. A law professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, who specializes in family law and feminist legal theory, Weisberg returns to her roots as a sociologist to present a fascinating ethnographic account of the events leading to the law's enactment. Drawing upon interviews she conducted with the main protagonists involved in the law reform process, as well as with the first surrogates and infertile couples to pursue surrogacy arrangements in Israel, her narrative writing style dramatizes the actions of the main actors on the Israeli surrogacy scene and unfolds at an exciting pace usually reserved for novels.

Starting with the landmark Israeli Supreme Court case of Nachmani v.Nachmani, which served as the catalyst for the Israeli parliament to speedily put together a law turning surrogacy into a state-controlled process, Weisberg delineates the inner politics and negotiations that led to the law's formation. While analyzing the feminist dilemmas of the specific form that surrogacy took in Israel, Weisberg provides a broader view of the constituent elements of Israeli society that shaped surrogacy's framework and acceptance. She discusses the clash between religious parties and feminist groups over the terms of the law, providing keen insights into how the interrelationship between judiciary, parliament, religious, and feminist power brokers shaped the construction of a unique legislative action.

In sum, Weisberg marvels at how Israel's surrogate motherhood arrangements can work so well and how other countries can learn from the Israeli example. Her book should be of interest to legal scholars and anthropologists who are interested in the intersection of politics, religion, and new reproductive technologies. It is also recommended for potential parents considering surrogacy and those interested in women's and family issues and the adaptation of Jewish law to modern technologies.