Men, Fatherhood, and the Regulation of Assisted Reproduction in Israel

Abstract

Abstract Research on law and reproduction is overwhelmingly focused on women. In contrast, very few studies offer similar riches surrounding men’s stakes in different reproductive contexts, leaving much to be uncovered about the gendered aspects of reproductive regulation. Using Israel as a case study, this article sheds light on how the law factors men into the regulation of assisted reproduction. By analysing policies that govern longstanding practices such as gamete donation, and more novel ones such as posthumous reproduction, this article shows how this body of law underestimates men’s desire to rear – not just to sire – children by valorising genetic lineage and treating their procreative stakes primarily as financial. In other instances, men’s access to principal routes to biological kinship has been contingent upon the presence of a caregiving mother or otherwise denied. Drawing from masculinities theory, this article argues that these doctrinal patterns correspond with masculine ideals underlying traditional perceptions of familial roles. Conceptualising men’s contribution to the reproductive equation as merely biological or financial results in a narrow, indeed stereotypical understanding of fatherhood as a relationship divested of nurture and care. Yet, recent changes in the Israeli reproductive landscape may signal a normative turn in the law’s relation to men, bringing assisted reproductive technology closer to fulfilling its potential to subvert long-held gender and familial norms.