It pains the heart, but when there is disagreement between the parents of a deceased soldier and his widow who did not merit to bring children into this world – the wife’s position is the determinant. Parents of a deceased soldier who was not married cannot use his sperm unless it is explicitly requested in his will.
On the eve of National Remembrance Day, discussion exploded surrounding using the sperm of a deceased IDF soldier in order to grant him progeny. Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, Head of the Ethics Department at Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, says that there is no halachic precedent for this issue, for in the past there was no technological ability to do so: “I tend to say that the matter is dependent on [the soldier’s] will: if he did not permit this explicitly – his sperm does not belong to them and they cannot make this decision. If he requested this in his will – the matter is permitted”.
Rabbi Cherlow said this as a continuation of the halachic ruling that was published a few weeks ago, where he joined the opinion of the courts regarding fertilization with the sperm of a married deceased person. The Supreme Court ruled that the wishes of the widow in this situation take precedence over the wishes of the parents, and now we will add the halachic aspects as well. “Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and they will be one flesh”, Rabbi Cherlow quotes the creation of Adam and Chava in Sefer Bereishit. “Just like how the Supreme Court ruled when asked about the topic, when there is a disagreement between the parents [of the soldier] and the widow regarding using the husband’s sperm – the widow has precedence, and her opinion is that which determines. From the moment that a person makes a covenant with his wife and vice versa – this covenant comes before any other covenant”.
Rabbi Cherlow, who acts as Head of the Ethics Department at Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, says that from an ethical perspective his ruling is appropriate: “The marital covenant is made in total free will, and includes within it the entire process of life, including the joint decision to bring children into this world. When a widow opposes this, we cannot do anything but listen to her opinion and view her as entitled to determine what to do”.
