Male Birth In Israel

I seem to remember that Harvard University was running a contest, of sorts, in which the first person who could effect a male birth would win a prize of one million dollars. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember the offer.

I don't know if this qualifies under the rules of the Harvard offer, but an Israeli man is nearing the end of his pregnancy and will soon be giving birth. B'sha'a Tova!

From Ynetnews:

A 24-year-old man shocked medical staff in central Israel Sunday after walking into an emergency room and informing doctors that he underwent a sex change operation and is now pregnant, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.


The man, who was born as a woman, is the first Israeli transgender to ever be pregnant. He is married to a man and is in the seventh month of pregnancy.


“Everyone was in shock,” said a patient at the hospital who was in the emergency room when the man walked in. “He looked like a man in every way and insisted that medical staff address him as a male.”


The man was reportedly sporting a goatee.


The pregnant man, who asked that his identity remain secret, has been taking hormones that have made his appearance manlier. Some three years ago, he underwent a breast-removal surgery in the United States. However, he chose to leave his productive organs intact, thereby paving the way for the current pregnancy.




The man’s friends say that he often volunteers to help teenagers who are confused about their sexual orientation and identity.


Following a medical examination, the man was released from hospital Sunday. Doctors apparently ruled that the pregnancy is proceeding as planned.


According to estimates, in Israel only 1 of every 400,000 women seeks to become a man. The sex change operation usually includes the removal of the female sex organs and construction of a penis.

I don't think he should win, not that I saw anywhere he/she is trying to claim the prize, as the competition was meant to find a medical way of effecting a real man to carry and birth a baby, while this is a case of a woman removing some parts and taking some hormones to look like a man.

I wonder, when they call the kid up for an aliya at his future bar mitzva (if the baby should be a boy) or at any ceremony where a prayer would be said using the child's name, how would they call the kid up - which father would be the father and which would be the mother?