ABSTRACT
In X v. District Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem,1 the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals dealt with the issue of a husband’s right to prevent his estranged wife’s implanting into her womb pre-embryos produced in the course of IVF (in vitro fertilization) using his sperm. The couple were married in 1997. The husband had three children from his previous marriage, but it was the wife’s first marriage. She had difficulty becoming pregnant, and the couple began IVF in the first year of their marriage. Toward the end of the first year, following two unsuccessful fertility treatments, the marriage began to fail, and following a third round of treatment, but before the implantation of any pre-embryos, the husband sued for divorce. The wife did not agree to accept the divorce, and petitioned the District Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem to order the husband to co-operate in an attempt to save the marriage and restore marital harmony to the home (shlom bayit). She also expressed her intention to proceed with implantation of the pre-embryos produced as a result of the third round of fertility treatment. The husband then petitioned for an order preventing the wife from implanting the pre-embryos.
