Episode 140: Israeli Surrogacy – Attorney Victoria Gelfand

I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Where do Israeli intended parents go to for surrogacy? What specific hurdles do they have to overcome? Is surrogacy widely available within Israel? And what is so drastically different between the Israeli approach to genetic parentage -- whether through surrogacy or through reproduction technologies -- and the American one? Victoria Gelfand (born and raised in Moscow, immigrated to Israel in her teens, educated in Tel Aviv and admitted to the Israeli bar in 2003) was the first attorney to provide legal assistance to Israeli couples and singles with respect to surrogacy procedures abroad back in 2006. In 2007, she achieved first recognition of surrogacy procedures carried out in India by the Israeli Ministry of Internal Affairs, creating a process that has since been used for all – well over two thousand – babies born to Israeli intended parents via surrogacy abroad. In 2008 she started her own practice which specializes exclusively on family formation and fertility law, and has won various precedential cases related to foreign surrogacy for Israeli intended parents. Victoria Gelfand, Law Offices is the only law firm outside North America which is a member of all three major US-based professional groups and societies in the field: the ABA, the AAAA, and SEEDS. Listen to Victoria as she discusses with Ellen and Jenn: • Her career path to law and transition to specializing in surrogacy and family formation. • Israeli law prohibiting same sex couples from building their family through surrogacy within the country. • Finding a loophole for same sex couples to become parents – through surrogacy outside the country. • The importance of genetic and biological connections in Israel. • Israeli’s interesting post-mortem conception cases. • The prohibition against known sperm donors in Israel. Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: [phone]. Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/ Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/ Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/ Learn about Victoria Gelfand’s law firm here: https://familylawyer.co.il/home/english/