ABSTRACT
In real life, meanwhile, new modes of reproduction are very definitely challenging conventions of both gender and kinship. Surrounded by controversy, these and other New Reproductive Technologies have raised thorny legal and moral issues. Throughout most of human history biological motherhood was taken for granted, but an equivalent "paternal certainty" did not exist. Techniques for determining the sex of an unborn child are by-products of a technology first developed to screen for genetic defects. Artificial insemination has long been routinely used in animal husbandry to ensure production of animals with desired characteristics. Once the eggs of one woman are fertilized outside the womb, they may be implanted either back into her or into another woman. The importance of reproduction, of reproducing Jews, is reflected in Israel's state policies that, for example, do not financially support family planning services but do offer various subsidies to families with three or more children.
