Illustration
Photo: Orly Dayan
Woman allowed to use dead donor's sperm
Krayot Family Court makes unprecedented ruling allowing woman wishing to conceive to use sperm donated by young man who died of cancer
The Krayot Family Court ruled Sunday that a 40-year-old woman could be artificially inseminated with the sperm of a dead donor. The ruling was given contrary to the State's opinion in the case.
The unprecedented ruling was given after the woman stated she was not going to serve as a surrogate, but that she wanted to be the child's mother.
The case was a unique one: The sperm in question belonged to a 22-year-old soldier who died of cancer several years ago. About eight months after that, the woman contacted his parents and asked to use the sperm. They obliged.
A Children Services affidavit stated that the woman and the bereaved parents "reached an agreement based on the belief that the child will have both a mother and grandparents… The dialogue was based on respect and affection and both sides are determined to see a childe born."
Nevertheless, the Attorney General's Office, which signs off on surrogacy agreements, denied the unprecedented request, saying the parents and a woman who was not the deceased spouse, have no legal standing in the matter.
Such an arrangement, said the AG's office, could only be stuck between a married man, or one living with a partner, and only if he expressed explicit wishes to father children. The parents, added the brief, have no legal standing in whether their son fathers children, be him alive or dead.
The woman sought the legal counsel of Attorney Irit Rosenblum, head of the New Family organization, and filed suit against the Health Ministry and the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, both of which claimed she had no right to the sperm, "Since the deceased had never met her."
Justice Esperanza Alon ruled in favor of the woman, citing the subject of insemination via a deceased's sperm is not regulated and "the changes in the structure of the modern family unit warrant a different approach to this question.
"In this case, the parents have proven that they had a strong, affectionate bond with their son and that he had confided in them about his hopes and desires for the future."
As for the future child's interests, the judge said that "since this will not be a conventional family unit… the advantage to knowing who the sperm donor is, outweighs the disadvantages."
