TEL AVIV: Same-sex couples in Israel may now have children via surrogates within the country, the Supreme Court ruled on Sunday (July 11), a move that advocates hailed as strengthening equality and critics bashed as eroding family values.
Surrogacy restrictions for same-sex couples and single men within the Jewish state must be lifted within six months, the court ruled.
Esther Hayut, the president of the court, made the decision following a battle dating back more than a decade. Since Israel is a leader in LGBTQ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights in the Middle East and has several openly gay members of parliament, surrogacy has been off-limits to gay couples and single men until now.
People who couldn’t have children with surrogates in Israel sought solutions in countries like India, Nepal, Thailand and the United States.
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The act of surrogacy, which involves a woman agreeing to bear a child for another person or couple, was legalized in Israel in 1996, initially only for heterosexual couples. The male same-sex couple Etai and Yoav Arad-Pinkas sought surrogacy in 2010 for the first time. They submitted a new petition together with other groups of LGBTQ rights in 2015 after that attempt failed.
The Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to end discrimination in surrogacy within 12 months, saying it was unconstitutional to exclude gay couples and single men. However, a proposal to expand access was blocked by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
After Israel’s March elections resulted in a new parliament, lawmakers continued to come up empty-handed.
Hayut wrote in his ruling, ‘We cannot reconcile with the continuing harm to human rights that is a result of the existing surrogacy arrangement.’
Oz Parvin, president of the Association of Israeli Gay Fathers, called the ruling ‘amazing’. Nine years ago, he and his partner used surrogacy in India to have twin daughters.
He said now other couples will be able to go through the entire surrogacy process in their own country. ‘It’s a lot easier and more sane,’ he said.
Bezalel Smotrich, a lawmaker with the opposition Religious Zionism party, said the ruling was an indication that Israel’s Jewish identity was crumbling.
The ruling is likely to reveal friction within the new governing coalition, which includes Meretz, whose chair Nitzan Horowitz is openly gay, and the conservative Islamist Raam, which has called homosexuals ‘deviants’.
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