One’s Death is Another’s Life: Posthumous Reproduction and the Jewish-Israeli Ideology of Parenting

The article explores posthumous reproduction in Israel, focusing on the issue of parenting. Can a dead man, whose sperm was used posthumously, become a father? Who are the parents of a posthumous child? The article analyzes parenting as an ideological concept, rather than a “natural” one, performed within what Foucault has termed “bio-power.” The bereaved parents who seek to have a posthumous grandchild act within the bio-power of the authorities; they contribute a new life for the good of the community. It is the state that allows them to have a posthumous grandchild – basing its decision on pro-natalistic ideology, memorialization of the dead and Jewish law. Consequently, the ideological nature of the concept of posthumous parenting and its framing as a matter of memorialization and continuity of the seed is what marginalizes the child’s best interests.