Surrogacy for Homosexual Couples? Israeli State Opposes.

Recently, an Israeli homosexual couple filed a suit to the High Court, where they requested to hire a surrogate mother to bear a child for them. The State Prosecutor's Office filed a response explaining that the Israeli law regarding surrogacy explicitly allows only opposite-sex couples to use a surrogate mother. The law does states that in order to use surrogate with a goal of bearing a child, the parents-to-be must be a man and a woman.

Supreme Court cannot alter the text of laws, but it has the power to repeal laws state attorneys stated. Therefore the suit appears to be practically irrelevant, as the homosexuals asking to make use of a surrogate mother does not have an ovum, and under Israeli law, would not be granted the use of a donated ovum, attorneys said. Additionally, the State did not rule out the possibility of a man in a homosexual relationship becoming a father through surrogacy, but argued that such a change to the law must be made by the Knesset, and not through the courts. So far, the state of Israel allows gestational surrogacy only in cases approved by a state committee, and couples that are allowed to use surrogacy are heterosexual couples who are suffering from infertility in which both partners are Israeli.

Additionally, surrogates must be single, which is a rule put in place to avoid the possibility that offspring would face illegitimacy under Jewish law. It is also important to bring out that the implications of allowing homosexual couples to use surrogate mothers have not only implications on the law. Moreover, they have various philosophical, ethical, moral, educational and social implications. Attorneys stated that the most suitable body for addressing these issues is the Knesset. I agree, it truly is a moral question whether the only test for parenthood should be whether a loving, nurturing and safe environment can be provided for the child, not the gender of the parents. I believe the time has come to start asking this question.