health mind and body

Touro confab eyes halachic issues in IVF

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Touro’s Lander College for Women, New York Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons have hosted an innovative conference on “The Future of Reproductive Medicine: A Jewish Perspective.”

The symposium covered in vitro fertilization (IVF) and newly emerging genetic technologies such as gene editing and mitochondrial replacement therapy. By allowing scientists and clinicians to modify the human genetic code, our holy human grail, these new biotechnologies have the potential to alter our lives in remarkable ways. In the future, these revolutionary technologies may be employed to prevent or correct over 6,000 disease-causing mutations, such as Tay Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, Gaucher’s disease, early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and even some types cancers. 

Legal, medical and halachic experts discussed the benefits and risks of new reproductive technologies, including ethical barriers. The consensus among the experts at this conference was that Jewish tradition focuses not on fear but rather on the suffering of infertile couples.

Furthermore, Judaism takes a lead position in explicating the positives in promoting basic research in these new biotechnologies to ensure the development, within a halachic framework, of appropriate therapeutic interventions. 

In welcoming remarks, Dr. Alan Kadish, president and chief executive officer of Touro College and University System. discussed recent findings in reproductive medicine, demonstrating that the genetics of a surrogate woman gestating an embryo could influence the genetics of the fetus. He raised a question that was repeated throughout the conference and set the stage to address other legal and halachic issues of new genetic technologies: How will halacha view this scientific discovery vis-a-vis the ongoing debate whether genetics or gestation confer motherhood? 

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