Title
The Influence of Catholicism, Islam and Judaism on the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (“Art”) Bioethical and Legal Debate: A Comparative Survey of Art in Italy, Egypt and Israel
Abstract
This article surveys the legal and bioethical influences/implications of Catholicism, Islam and Judaism on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatment and practice as specifically related to Italy, Egypt and Israel. With the advent of modern ART, which includes In Vitro Fertilization, surrogacy, embryo manipulation, and associated treatments, theologians, lawmakers, and bioethicists have issued a flurry of laws, fatwas, encyclicals, and position papers delineating the ethical dilemmas presented by ART, and regulating its practices. Although the three Abrahamic theologies share common origins and constructs, they each inform and apply the law and policy regarding procreation and infertility in vastly different ways. Their influence is, nonetheless, remarkable in shaping the procreative debate, specifically in their “host” countries where, despite pronounced “secular” governments, a majority of the family status laws demand strict religious adherence. This article thus explicates the framework of the legal and religious ART debate and how that debate influences the larger geopolitical balance where the enlargement of the Catholic/Muslim/Jewish nation is central the survival of each regime.
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