Postmortem Sperm Retrieval Helps Israeli Woman Become Mother 1.5 Years After Partner’s Death; How is the Procedure Conducted?

An Israeli woman has given birth to her slain partner’s child more than a year after he was killed in Gaza, using the unique Postmortem Sperm Retrieval or the PSR technology. Thirty-five-year-old Dr Hadas

Levi became a mother to a baby boy in the summer this year. After Levi’s fiancée, Captain Netanel Silberg, passed, she was in total disbelief for a while, followed by a strong desire to preserve their family line by having his child. However, the baby has now restored joy to her life. “This child is my answer to the enemy. I did not let my family’s branch break,” she told the New York Post. Levy rushed against time to get Silberg’s sperm preserved Levy said within 20 minutes of getting to know of Silberg’s demise, she embarked on the near-impossible - seeking to retrieve the sperm of her beloved so she could fulfill their dream of having a family. Levy, a pediatrician who met reservist Silberg in Jerusalem in a chance encounter, sprang into action and got his sperm, which were not as viable as live sperm and had no motility, successfully preserved. During a gruelling 10-hour process at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, a specialized team worked to revive dead sperm that had been deprived of oxygen for hours. According to doctors, while the genetic material was not developed or ready to use, and while a sample from a living donor typically contains millions of sperm cells, this harvest produced only nine viable cells. Later, Levy also recalls facing hurdles with the Israeli legal system, which determines a partner’s legal and ethical right to use the sperm of a dead person, on top of significant medical hurdles, including her own fertility treatments. However, she defied all odds.“The doctors didn’t want to give me percentages, because they really didn’t know,” she explained. Levy became pregnant in October last year and has since become the only partner of a fallen soldier to conceive the soldier’s child in Israel’s history. “It’s a miracle,” she said. “It’s science fiction.”

What is Postmortem Sperm Retrieval?

The process of Postmortem or Posthumous sperm retrieval was reported in 1980, and the first baby conceived as a result was born in 1999. While not all hospitals and fertility clinics perform the procedure, those that do have varying guidelines as to when and how it can be done, and who can request it. Doctors say sperm is generally extracted from a patient who is brain-dead or shortly after they have been declared deceased. The recommended time frame is typically 24 to 36 hours after death.

How does PSR work?

To perform the retrieval, doctors usually conduct an epididymal aspiration – a procedure where the extraction of sperm with a needle through the skin is done, along with a testicular biopsy. Once the sperm is extracted, it is usually frozen and stored in the same way fertility clinics freeze a living donor's semen. When the deceased's partner is ready for pregnancy, doctors can attempt to fertilize one of their eggs with the sperm in a lab setting using the IVF technique. The success rate of pregnancies using posthumously acquired sperm has not been widely studied, and neither has the health of children conceived this way.

Legal and ethical concerns

Doctors say even though the entire procedure is simple, posthumous reproduction poses a wide range of legal and ethical issues – including the ownership of gametes, and inheritance rights, along with the benefits of posthumously conceived children. In India, there are rules for PSR under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Act, 2021, which allows for retrieval in specific circumstances, particularly for a surviving spouse. These rules apply to cases where only the deceased is married and the retrieval is for the use of the surviving partner. However, there are many legal challenges, and court orders have also permitted retrieval in cases without a spouse, establishing that a semen sample can be considered "property" in the absence of a spouse.