Sunday, September 25, 2005

Infertility -- a spiritual affliction?

Twice this year, we've talked about rabbis who attach moral and spiritual stigma to a physical disease (ie. imply people get cancer because they -- or even others -- sinned in some way). The NYT today has a short piece on people coming to the Lubavitcher Rebbe's grave because they believe it will help them conceive (...bad enough, but anyway), which includes a quote from one Dr. Richard V. Grazi, director of a Brooklyn clinic called Genesis Fertility and Reproductive Medicine, which has a patient base that is heavily Orthodox Jewish. He says:
"Many people believe disease is controlled to a certain extent by God and that infertility is a spiritual affliction," Dr. Grazi said. "You ask what brought them the child and they say, 'It was the rebbe.' And it's really impossible to prove either way."
What makes it even worse is that it sounds like this time, it's the victims of the condition themselves who are doing this.

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