CNN and AP reveal what may be a new frontier for grandparent rights. After a four-year battle, an Israeli court in Tel Aviv has granted the wish of the family of a dead soldier. They had a hospital take and preserve a semen sample shortly after the single 20 year old’s death so they could arrange to impregnate a surrogate mother, a woman he never met.
The AP reports (excerpt):
“On the one hand I’m terribly sad that I don’t have my boy; it’s a terrible loss,” Rachel Cohen said in an interview in Monday’s Chicago Tribune. “But I’m also happy that I succeeded in carrying out my son’s will.”
****
She said she knew of more than 100 cases of Israeli soldiers who, before last summer’s war with Lebanese guerillas, asked to have their sperm saved if they were killed. American soldiers have also begun donating sperm before heading to Iraq, she said.