Israel considers surrogacy law

Israel is poised to become the first country to legalise surrogate motherhood. The move has been recommended by a panel of experts, who emphasise that there would need to be strict guidelines and supervision at every stage. It is now up to the Israeli parliament (Knesset) to make a final decision.

Surrogacy is currently outlawed in Israel. In Britain it is illegal only as a commercial enterprise, while it has been neither outlawed nor formally approved in the US and Canada. Israel's ministers of justice and of health have already said that they favour leglisation in principle but that, given …