Watan-The Israeli Knesset witnessed intense confrontations on Wednesday due to a law related to the use of sperm from deceased Israeli soldiers. The clash erupted between the widows of soldiers and their fathers over which party has the right to extract sperm from their bodies and preserve it.

Mothers attended the meeting, speaking about their sons’ wishes who were killed during the war. It was revealed during the committee that since the outbreak of the war, sperm from dozens of soldiers has been frozen. In some cases, it was not possible to preserve it due to the long duration since their death.

The controversial law in the Knesset

In November 2023, the Israeli Ministry of Health decided to allow the extraction of sperm from Israeli casualties, following the attack by Hamas on October 7 last year, in order to preserve it through freezing and maintain their chances of reproduction.

The current law in Israel grants this right to widows without the need for a court order, while fathers must obtain a court order, which involves lengthy bureaucratic procedures.

The present widows strongly opposed the idea of the deceased man’s relatives possibly choosing a woman unrelated to their son to bear his child with his sperm, seeing it as an insult to the widow who would know that her husband has a child she did not bear.

This ignited a conflict between the two sides under the dome of the Knesset yesterday.

The Hebrew newspaper “Haaretz” reported that progress on the law regulating the extraction of sperm from bodies awaits the stance of the Chief Rabbi.

According to the acting chairwoman of the committee, Mirav Ben Ari, the bill is ready for the first reading, but the process has been delayed due to the requirement of prior approval from the deceased: “Religious considerations – that is the only reason for the lack of progress.”

The approval of the law, also known as the “Continuity Law,” has been delayed due to the request of rabbis to require the implementation of the procedure with the consent of the deceased before their death.

According to the settlement reached, committee members will await the decision of Chief Rabbi David Lau before approving the final version of the law.

Under the draft law, the deceased Israeli soldier’s parents have the right to object to the wife’s request to use sperm if she does not meet the conditions specified by the law – for example, if she is married to someone else or is not a citizen of the country.

Resorting to the court

In addition, parents will be able to go to court if they have evidence of the deceased’s prior objection to the procedure. However, it is not clear how rulings will be made regarding the deceased’s intentions in cases where the parents do not have documented evidence of that.

Data provided by the Israeli Ministry of Health to the committee indicated that since the beginning of the war, sperm from 110 soldiers and ten civilians has been frozen. Moreover, 82 of the requests came from the deceased’s parents, with 28 of them submitted by spouses.