An unusual procedure: the sperm of dead Israeli soldiers is requested

Normally, post-mortem sperm retrieval does not require any legal intervention, but parents have had to get involved in legal maelstroms. This ban has now been lifted. A special unit is now coordinating the work of informing families about sperm collection and speeding up the procedure with the Israeli military and hospitals.

Professor Daniel Seidman, who works as a senior reproductive medicine physician at the Asuta Medical Center in Tel Aviv, told The Insider that his clinic alone, since October 7. 24 such procedures were performed:

“I know of at least one case after October 7 where doctors collected sperm 72 hours after death and found live sperm, but no one knows if they will produce a baby. All in all, I know that at my hospital there were about 24 cases where sperm was collected within 72 hours, but all pregnancies occurred within 48 hours.”

According to the doctor, on October 7 the problem with the murdered men is that their bodies were in the sun for at least 24 hours. “Most pregnancies are achieved using sperm collected within 24 or 36 hours, and it makes a huge difference whether a person dies in a hospital where the body can be protected or dies in the sun, outside,” he said.

The interviewer noted that this situation raises a number of ethical questions. According to him, many partners order this procedure from doctors under the influence of emotions, without thinking about the complications associated with it:

“Children and fertility have always been very important to the Israelites. But there are also ethical questions: should we deliberately create orphans? It is a great burden for the child to learn that his father was a brave warrior. Furthermore, the consent of the deceased is not sought. He is not asked if he wants to have a child. Also, in most cases, the sperm is never used. Because wives and partners, being very emotional, often ask to freeze sperm, but later raise the question of whether to bring another orphan into the world.”