Dor Yeshorim - Praise and Criticism

Praise and Criticism

The system has received praise and criticism from both within as well as outside the community.

There has been criticism leveled against the method used by Dor Yeshorim by Moshe Dovid Tendler, a professor of medical ethics at Yeshiva University.

The question arises, when do you stop? There are close to 90 genes you wouldn’t want to have. Will this led to people showing each other computer print outs of their genetic conditions? We’ll never get married.

He feels that the system is "affirming eugenics" which he sees as "the idea that Jews are the repository of bad genes".

Dor Yeshorim, as per policy, does not disclose the individual’s carrier status.

Dr. Fred Rosner, M.D., FACP an assistant Dean and professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has only praise for Dor Yeshorim.

I think Dor Yeshorim performs a tremendous service...screening is a wonderful thing to do, and if you can avoid the birth of a potentially lethally affected child, that is a good thing.

Dor Yeshorim has been criticised for withholding patient results, for declining to publish its financial records and for not testing anyone who has already been tested elsewhere, by Professor Geoffrey Alderman, who says that Dor yeshorim fails some fundamental tests itself. Critics including the Association for the Prevention of Jewish Genetic Diseases, have described Dor Yeshorim in the UK as a "Wedding tax", when in fact free screening is available under the UK's national health service.

Dor Yeshorim was also criticised for allegedly seeking to convince the Jewish community it must, for “religious reasons,” use its service, by circulating a letter from Rabbi Bezalel Rakow of Gateshead, who wrote “To deviate from the established path is to risk awesome pitfalls,”. Rabbi Rakow was in fact a signatory to a subsequent letter stating that "Every individual has the privilege to perform the test in a manner consistent with his desires.” Additionally, the Jewish Chronicle published a letter by a Tay Sachs carrier, who was hurt by a Dor Yeshorim organiser's insinuation, that there was stigma attached to being a Tay-Sachs carrier.