Begins painstaking work of hammering out a bill to provide a legal basis for egg donations.
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
The Knesset began the painstaking work on Tuesday of hammering out a bill to provide a legal basis for egg donations to women with fertility difficulties.
The legislature's Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee's subcommittee for follow-up on the proposed Egg Donation Law met for the first time, together with a large number of experts.
The discussion focused on preparing the bill for its second and third Knesset readings, and was chaired by MK Arye Eldad.
"There are very complicated ethical considerations and implications," Eldad said. "We must weigh different values against each other, for example the right of women to be a mother and to give birth, and a woman's right to control her own body."
Eldad said that the complex nature of the legislation meant that the subcommittee's hearings would progress slowly, but that he was "very optimistic" that the bill would be up for a vote before the end of the legislature's summer term.
The most controversial aspects of the bill include using donated eggs for medical research rather than fertility treatment, and the question of compensation - monetary or otherwise - for donors.