wtf?!

[electricland]

OK, this just seems wrong on so many levels:

Dead Israeli soldier to reproduce

JERUSALEM — In a precedent-setting decision, an Israeli court has ruled that a dead soldier's family can have his sperm impregnated into the body of a woman he never met.

Keivan Cohen, 20, was shot dead in 2002 by a Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip. He was single and left no will, but at the urging of his parents, a sample of his sperm was taken two hours after his death and has been stored in a hospital since.

When the family tried to gain access to the sperm, however, the hospital refused, on the ground that only a spouse could make such a request. Arguing that their son yearned to raise a family, his parents challenged that decision in court. And on Jan. 15, after a four-year legal battle, a Tel Aviv court granted the family's wish and ruled that the sperm could be injected into a woman selected by Mr. Cohen's family.

I'm sure their son did yearn to raise a family, but I expect, y'know, he wasn't expecting to do that AS A ZOMBIE.

For the record, if I'm hit by a bus tomorrow, by all means harvest my organs and give them to people who can use them, but please do not harvest my ova and have them fertilized. (I mean, if some other woman can use my ovaries, hey, yeah, I guess, go for it.) If I'm going to have kids I would like to be around to help with their upbringing.

Comments

[gurudata.livejournal.com]

Hiho,

Wow. What a complete violation of the soldier's reproductive rights. :(

Cu,
Andrew

[electricland.livejournal.com]

No kidding. :( Very, very wrong.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Gah! I'm pretty sure having children was something he would have wanted to be around for - the hospital never should have taken the same in the first place. That's just fucking gross.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

*nods* So true.

Oh, btw: ice_fighter has a question you may be able to help with.

[pretentiousgit.livejournal.com]

Oh, swearwords of exasperation.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

That was my reaction when I first heard about it - he was twenty years old. Chances are excellent that when he said he wanted kids, he said it in the vague future plans way, intending *to be there to raise them.* I cannot imagine that what he meant was "yeah, Mom, take my sperm and knock up some babe I've never met four years after I'm dead."

I sympathize with her, I truly do, but this is bizarre.

I've actually gone to reasonable lengths to be sure that my next of kin [my husband] is aware that I am an organ donor for all organs EXCEPT reproductive. If I donate eggs, I'd like it to be while I'm alive; if doctors want to try uterus transplants (it's happening), please to do it with a uterus that isn't mine.

[eniran.livejournal.com]

Those uterus implants scare the crap out of me.

I can't imagine how I would feel if I was told that there was no way I could conceive a baby on my own. To make the decision to have a uterus implanted... inconceivable. I don't necessarily believe that there is a reason for everything, but there have to be limits.

I don't think I could fathom the pain you would face if they realised that the uterus they had implanted was being rejected and along with it, the baby they couldn't have prior to the implant. Two heartbreaks in one. No thank you.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they scare me, too. I figure at that point, why not go with surrogacy? I know the experience of being pregnant is important to some people, but is it worth risking not only their lives but that of the baby they so desperately wanted? Not to mention that anti-rejection drugs aren't really great for a fetus, either.

On top of that, there's the very real risk it won't work and you'll be in a truly awful situation, as you say.

[archaica.livejournal.com]

I'm sure their son did yearn to raise a family, but I expect, y'know, he wasn't expecting to do that AS A ZOMBIE.

OK, it's inappropriate, but boy was that funny.

On a more serious note, yeah, I could never imagine that this would have had to be a subject for discussion by, say, ANYone, but yeah. This is not something I would support. It's just ghoulish, I'm sorry.

[llnaughty.livejournal.com]

this is pretty insane. i could see justifying something like this, but really not at all like this, if he was say married, and he and his wife were actively trying to have kids, and because he's a soldier and is put more in harm's way than the average person had discussed sperm storage if say he was injured or even died if both he and his wife agreed that her raising their children by herself was something that was acceptable to both of them, but like i said, that scenario is not really like this at all.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Situations like that have happened, and were considerably less controversial, since all parties involved consented *while they were alive.*

[alierakieron.livejournal.com]

Well...
The one thing I would say is that Jewish law does already have a template in place for posthumous fatherhood: if a man died leaving no heirs, his widow was supposed to conceive a child with his nearest male relative. That child would be considered the heir of the woman's first husband, and his 'son' in most senses of the word.
Yes, that's radically different from what happened here, but i can see the train of logic. Kinda. o_0

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Yes, that is kind of a logical extension. I guess. Kinda.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

My mind, it boggles.

The only thing that could make this decision more fucked up (so to speak) is if the dead soldier was posthumously required to pay child support out of his estate (if there was one). But I wouldn't put it past some people to try something like that.