What is the role of religion if humans have the technology to replace body parts with artificial ones, test for and terminate problematic pregnancies and choose when to die? We tackle these contentious topics and more in our six-week series about medical ethics viewed through a Jewish cultural and traditional lens. This is the second series under our new partnership with Jewish Renaissance.

IVF, surrogacy, three-parent embryos using mitochondrial DNA, uterine transplants… None of these treatments had been conceived of when the Talmudic rabbis were debating and creating halacha (Jewish law) about the womb. So how does Jewish culture and tradition deal with the ethical ramifications raised by such advances in reproductive technology? Professor Susan Martha Kahn, director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, who is a social anthropologist and author of Reproducing Jews – the key academic text exploring the impact of new reproductive technology on Israel society – is joined by Guila Vas Mouyal, Jnetics’ outreach, research and development manager, whose own academic research explores Jewish law on assisted reproductive technology in relation to the lives of Orthodox women.

For more information and to book:

https://www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk/events/jewish-medical-ethics