Medicine and the State: The Medicalization of Reproduction in Israel
Yali Hashash
Yali Hashash
2010

This chapter traces the medicalization of reproduction in Israel and the negotiations between Israeli medicine and the State over resource allocation and legislation regarding reproduction through the second half of the 20th century and the begining of the 21st. It argues that beyond national, political, cultural and ideological agendas, the medical establishment in Israel has also acted in its own interests in increasing its professional power and influence by ever deepening the medicalization of reproduction. It suggests that Israeli medicine cannot be understood as a mere tool used by a presumably homogenous State to promote a coherent political agenda or reflect a clear value system, and that  ideological justification structures were often instrumental, nurturing the medical establishment’s  growing power position. In: D. Birenbaum-Carmeli and Y.S. Carmeli, eds., Kin, Gene, Community: Reproductive Technologies among Jewish Israelis, Berghahn Press, 2010