Volume 68 Number 3 May 2001	back to contents

Assisted Reproduction: A Jewish Perspective	219-223
Fred Rosner, M.D.
Address correspondence to Fred Rosner, M.D., Director, Department of Medicine, Queens Hospital Center, 82-68 164th Street, Jamaica, NY 11432. Judaism values medicine as a noble profession. Physicians are mandated by the Bible to heal, and those who are ill are obligated to seek healing from their physicians. In Jewish thought, infertility is considered an illness. Hence, in spite of many Jewish legal and ethical questions, assisted reproductive techniques such as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood, within certain limited circumstances, are viewed with favor by most current rabbinic authorities, provided the couple is unable to have a child in the normal manner and after standard medical or surgical interventions have failed. KEY WORDS Assisted reproduction, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood.

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