Blog The Fertility Revolution lecture series, ...

An Israeli re-married couple, both already having kids from previous mariages, are entitled to goverment funded fertility treetments until they have two kids of their own. In contrast, adopting a child in Israel is a challenging odisey for couples with reproduction problems. What are the cultural and socialogical reasons for this difference?

The Israeli society, both secular and religous, are supportive of stem-cell research and other technological innovations aimed at improving health for the living. Why is it so different from the Catholic approach that sanctifies life immediately after inception, and what are the reasons why the Jewish and Cathholic approaches diveraged in the early 19th century?

These questions are discussed in the a thrilling series of lectures by Dr. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev in the Israeli Broadcast University.  The Broadcast University is a series of acadmic lectures, mostly in social sciences and humanities, produced by the Tel Aviv University and aired over the Army Radio Broadcast since 1977. The description of the topic of this lecture series, available in Hebrew here (together with the podcasts):

"Medical technologies allow for people today to give birth without having sex, to become parents after death, to diagnose the properties and future of embryos and pre embryos, to choose the gender of the child, give birth after menopause, donate or trade in eggs and much more. These innovations are changing the world order and changes traditional concepts about parenting, family and life's limits. Dr. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev explores in this lecture series the fertility revolution in sociological perspective and presents the main arguments in the field. The lectures focus on the unique expression of the fertility revolution in Israel and entertain the reasons for the widespread use of fertility technologies in this society."

The attached Youtube video is taken from another radio broadcast show, called 'Striving for Contact'. The video is a parody of one of the prominant series of lectures given in the Broadcast university by the great philosopher Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz. Alas, the video is in Hebrew, and is funnier if you listened to the real Prof. Leibowitz in person, as I have. The title of the lecture is 'About Google and Divinty'.