In “Aporia”: On Techno-Natalism in Israel
How the Jewish State is using IVF, genetic screening, and other reprotechnologies for a bigger and healthier population
I have written a piece in Aporia—the world’s premier sociobiology publication—on Israel’s embrace of reprogenetic technologies like IVF and genetic screening. These enable the Jewish State to expand people’s reproductive options, screen out genetic diseases, and increase the birth rate. Unlike most countries, Israel reimburses both IVF—with now over 5% of births being IVF-assisted—and targeted genetic screening depending on the diseases most common given a person’s ethno-genetic background (e.g. European Jews, Mideast Jews, Arabs, Bedouins…).
IVF is fairly costly (in the West, $12,000-15,000 is not unusual) and now takes up 2% of the Israeli health budget. Honestly though, this kind of price is very cheap compared to what governments and individuals spend on educating young people, despite what seem like diminishing returns and rising opportunity costs. (E.g., in ultra-low fertility South Korea, almost 70% of people have done some kind of tertiary education, the highest rate in the world.) As such, I believe supporting reprotech is, and will increasingly be, one of the best investments nations and individuals can make, both to actually have children in the first place and to ensure the new generation have the best chances of being healthy and flourishing.
Shangai added IVF to its public health insurance coverage, one of China's many regional experiments in stabilizing its population.
Fascinating.
I can’t find info on whether surrogates can be compensated, maybe they get a fee but the amount is fixed? Do you know?
“Given the limits of environmental interventions”
What were you referencing by “environmental”?