Jewish Law, Jewish Ethics and Quebec's Culture: Potential Influences on the Experience of Infertility for Hasidic Women in Quebec

The author examines reproductive technologies and infertility from the perspective of Orthodox Jewish ethics, law and culture. She points out that treating infertility is a complex process; individuals vary in their course of treatment, taking into account their medical situation, religious beliefs, prevailing cultural norms, reproductive policy in their jurisdiction, financial constraints, and their community context. For Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews, the author explains that this context includes a religious and cultural imperative to procreate, as well as religious law and social preference dictating the most preferred types of family. She notes that Judaism is a particularly pronatalist religion and has a large body of halakhic text on reproductive technologies. Jewish people living in North America may also be influenced in their infertility experience by the policies and cultural norms of the society in which they live. The author examines the aspects of halakha (Jewish law), Quebec policy, Orthodox Jewish ethics, and ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish culture that are likely to influence the experience of infertility for Hasidic Jewish women in Quebec. Orthodox Judaism has a strong legacy of opinion defining the nature of family and the importance of genetics. The author examines the aspects of Judaism and Hasidic culture that might strongly influence this experience and examines aspects of Quebec's history and current policy that may also influence this experience, albeit from a different angle.

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

2013

92p.

en