4 August 2017

Haaretz: Israel's Top Court Says Same-sex Surrogacy Law Discriminatory, but Defers Ruling

In his interim ruling, Joubran noted that the court feels "no small amount of discomfort" from the current state of the law. "It is hard to agree with a situation in which single people and same-sex couples are prevented from exercising their right to become parents as part of surrogacy agreements. The law grants this right to one group but excludes another one due to its identity, preferences, orientations or life style. [...]

Two weeks ago the Knesset passed the first reading of a different bill, which would allow single women to contract surrogacy services only if they suffered from medical problems that precluded them from carrying a pregnancy and only using their own ova. It does not offer anything to the petitioners in the case before the court. The court, nonetheless, said it would wait to see the legislation put on the books before ruling. [...]

In October 2014 the Knesset passed a first reading of a bill sponsored by then-Health Minister Yael German that was based on the recommendations of the Mor-Yosef Committee, but stated that not only single women, but single men and homosexual couples could arrange for surrogate births in Israel. Six weeks after that vote, the Knesset was dissolved and a law which would have allowed the next Knesset to pick up the legislative process where it was left off did not apply, leaving it on the Knesset floor.

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