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Court: Woman may use married partner's sperm
Jerusalem District Court rules Health Ministry guidelines barring such use 'legally invalid'
The Jerusalem District Court has granted a petition by a woman asking to use her partner's sperm in fertility treatments, despite him being married to another woman.
The Health Ministry's guidelines concerning fertility and IVF treatments prohibit women from using their partner's sperm if the latter is married to someone else.
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The woman and her partner – who is in the midst of divorcing his wife – filed the petition after they were refused fertility treatments by several facilities, due to the man's marital status.
The petitioners claim that the Health Ministry's "arbitrary guidelines infringed on her natural right to have children," adding that seeing how she was unable to conceive naturally, the refusal was also "callous and cruel."
The petition also stated that the Health Ministry's demand that the man's estranged wife be informed of the fact that the two were considering fertility treatments "was devoid of any logic."
The Health Ministry, however, claimed that the latter was a matter of "public interest," especially if for some reason the man's divorce was stalled.
The ministry also claimed that since the man was still technically married, not informing his wife that he planned to father another woman's child would leave the State vulnerable to legal action by the wife, who was described in the brief as "the injured party."
The court said that despite the legal complexities of the matter, "Society in general, and the ministry here, have no right to interfere in a woman's intimate decision of giving birth."
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