A Petach Tikva court set a precedent Tuesday after it ruled that the parents of a fallen Israeli Navy Lt. Omri Shahar could use his sperm for in vitro fertilization even though he and his partner at the time of his death had no intention of rearing children. In 2012, after Omri was killed in a car crash, Shahar's parents had his sperm extracted before his burial and then petitioned the court to allow this extraordinary measure. The state, which opposed the request, told the court that a 2003 directive from the attorney general stipulated that the procedure should be allowed only in cases where the fallen soldier had intended to father children before his death or if his surviving partner made such request. Shahar's girlfriend of three years at the time of his death said she supported his parents' request, but was not interested in becoming pregnant using his sperm. On Tuesday, the judge said that despite her "many qualms," she had been convinced by experts that this was the right thing to do. The legal battle now over, the parents plan to use the sperm to fertilize a donor egg and then find a surrogate. The court also granted the parents' request for custody of their future grandchild. "We will be the adoptive parents and the grandparents, and we hope this will open the door for more parents, by giving them hope and by showing them that losing a child doesn't mean losing everything," Irit Shahar said on Tuesday. Shortly after the court rendered its decision Tuesday, Irit visited Omri's grave. "I had to be with him for a full hour and tell him, 'Omriki, we won; we made history. It's amazing how you turned your mother into a warrior,'" she told Israel Hayom. "We waited for this moment," Omri's father, Asher, said. The decision was praised by New Family, a family rights advocacy group. "For the first time, the courts agreed that the right to have a next of kin outweighs the insistence on having a biological parent raise the child," said New Family founder Irit Rosenblum.
Parents of fallen soldier to use his sperm to fertilize donor egg
Court sets precedent, allows parents to use surrogate, raise grandchildren from deceased son despite rules that make option contingent on 'biological will' or the request of a partner • Girlfriend of soldier killed in 2012 did not want to use his sperm.
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