(b) Any action involving in vitro fertilization of a married woman shall be done only after obtaining her husband's consent.
(c) Consent under these Regulations -
(1) It shall not be given to a particular person or to a particular matter;
(2) It shall be given in writing and in the presence of a doctor, provided that the consent of a married couple is given on one document."
For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that Regulation 2 Defines the actions to which the regulations apply as including taking an egg from a woman, fertilizing an egg, as well as freezing and implanting a fertilized egg in a woman's body.
- The In Vitro Fertilization Regulations were enacted by virtue of Section 33 to the Public Health Ordinance, 1940 (hereinafter: The People's Health Ordinance). This section grants the subordinate legislature general authority to enact regulations mainly in organizational or sanitary aspects relating to medical services (see: High Court of Justice 256/88 MediaInvest Herzliya Medical Center BTax Appeal v. Director General of the Ministry of Health, IsrSC 44(1) 19, 31-32 (1989)). This is outdated Mandatory legislation, which, despite the difficulties that arise from relying on it for the purpose of regulating areas that have not yet come into existence at the time of its enactment, it was determined that the arrangements established by virtue of it in matters of fertility and childbirth should not be invalidated. In one of the rulings, in which a request to allow sperm donation from a known donor was discussed, it was explained in this context that deviating from the arrangements set out in the Public Health Ordinance at the present time "means creating chaos on an extremely sensitive issue" (High Court of Justice 4645/18 Anonymous v. Minister of Health, paragraph 8 of the judge's judgment v. Hendel [Nevo] (February 13, 2019) (hereinafter: the Matter The Known Donor)).
- In 2001, the legal advisor to the Ministry of Health sent a letter to the directors of the fertility units in hospitals and sperm banks, dealing with "fertilization treatments from the sperm of an anonymous person" (January 17, 2001). In this guideline, it was clarified that, as a rule, fertility can be performed on a woman at her request, even from the sperm of a person she knows who is not her husband or a spouse living with her (provided that the two are not married to the other). In this directive, it was emphasized that a condition for carrying out the action is the presentation of an agreement between the parties, which includes reference to a number of important aspects detailed therein, and these are:
")1) The man declares that he wants the particular woman to have his sperm sewn and that he is aware that his obligations to the newborn do not depend on the validity of the agreement between him and the patient and will apply to him in any case, as a biological parent.