Ethics and infertility
SPIRITGROW’S Rabbi Laibl Wolf joined a prestigious panel of professors and ethicists at a major Jewish medical conference in Zurich last month, examining the challenge of tackling infertility.
SPIRITGROW’S Rabbi Laibl Wolf joined a prestigious panel of professors and ethicists at a major Jewish medical conference in Zurich last month, examining the challenge of tackling infertility.
Topics under the spotlight included pre-implantation genetic testing of frozen eggs and donated sperm, animal experimentation, abortion, Gaucher Disease and the construction of artificial uteruses.
Among the 200 participants were leaders in the field such as Professor Rabbi Dr Avraham Steinberg of Shaare Zedek Hospital, Professor Rabbi Dr Gideon Weitzman of The Puah Institute of Israel and Professor Dr David Pelcovitz of New York University.
Rabbi Wolf presented sessions at the four-day Infertility: Fate or Challenge conference on how to use meditation as a therapeutic tool to assist with and alleviate the stresses that often accompany genetic screening procedures and decision making.
Highlighting the nature of the discussion, Rabbi Wolf reflected, “Right now pre-implantation diagnosis of the genetic material is illegal in many European countries but legislation is fast changing.
“Indeed why should there exist any fear of checking for genetic hazards? Especially when it is now clear that Jews have more genetic abnormalities than any other genetic group worldwide. Should not ethics and law actually facilitate this form of screening?”
However, from an ethical standpoint, he asked, “Is there a danger of a future fraught with designer-label babies who only have blue eyes, fair hair, and likelihood of a Hollywood career or basketball prowess?”
Hailing the conference as “an epic event”, Rabbi Wolf added. “Having Professor David Pelcovitz discussing with Professor Steinberg the halachic, legal, social and psychological implications for a brave new world of medical science, provided a rare glimpse of brilliance and insight that these great minds bring to the table, merging intensely Jewish backgrounds and learning with the social dynamics that new and futuristic frontiers bring to the world.
“Everyone, lay person and professional alike from among the almost 200 attendees from around the world, came away inspired that science and Jewish ethics are converging in a fascinating congruence, providing guidance as well as fast-paced progress that addresses the problems of infertility in an enlightened and progressive manner, while built-in ethical safeguards are keeping a ‘brave new world’ in check from unethical excesses.”
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