Couple trying to use the sperm of their dead son to have a grandchild
By Ben ReiningaMarch 28th, 2011, 1:37 pmComments (30)
Ohad Ben-Yakov, a twenty-seven-year-old Israeli man, was installing an air conditioner at the part-time job he worked to pay for university when there was an accident. It left him in a coma for two weeks, and ultimately caused his death. While he was comatose, his parents had his sperm extracted. Now that he's died, they're trying to get permission to use his sperm to create a child.
And it looks like they just might succeed, pending the decision of the Israeli Attorney General. If the case is decided in their favor, it would be the latest addition to an interesting legal precedent. Nowhere had Ohad written down or indicated a desire to have children, at least not legally. However, the mother of an Israeli soldier killed in 2001 successfully had her son's sperm extracted (which can be done for up to three days after death), and won the right to attempt to create a child, although attempts at in vitro fertilization with a surrogate have been unsuccessful.
Israel is perhaps the world's most boundary-pushing nation when it comes to reproductive technology. They have the best fertility doctors in the world — on average, they're seven or eight times more successful at in vitro fertilization than American doctors. Israeli health insurance covers IVF and they were the first nation to legalize surrogate-mother agreements. And apparently, they're on the verge of recognizing a legal right to grandparenthood.
Judaism has always encouraged followers to "be fruitful," and twentieth-century tragedies like the Holocaust have only fostered a pro-natalist Israeli viewpoint. And a grieving couple's desire to have a grandchild after the untimely death of their son seems, on the one hand, understandable. And, on the other, taboo — the impulse against creating a "replacement child" for a lost son seems to be the same that makes us uncomfortable with human cloning.
Commentarium (30 Comments)
You'd be interested in fertility too if you were a tiny nation surrounded by larger enemies.
I am struck by your ability to boil this one down into something that lacks relevance to the original post.
You're lucky I didn't try to work Obama's birth certificate into it.
Because that would require your to let all your brain matter fall out of your ear through a straw.
youre not supposed to stick a q-tip all the way inside your ear. only around the outside. check the box. true fax.
WEIRD.
The card says "moops"
but rest assured this wouldn't have happened under Bush's watch
Since he was the Israeli president... you're an idiot.
Good luck to the Israelites trying to repopulate their nation with a Kenyan who won't show his birth certificate in the White House.
No, but it was shown outside of the White House. Just not the long form. Which by the way, many Americans don't have.
the joke
--
your head
Who thinks to extract the sperm of their son when he's on his deathbed?
Is there any other reason for doing that than IVF?
And Obama did show his birth certificate, you idiots. He showed it in 2008, sorry it wasn't from Kenya , you racists. Oh and f*ck Bush. He set precidents that have forced Obama into corners all throughout his presidency. Not that it's been that impressive anyway. He can't even get the DEA to do what he tells them to. So mneh :P
No Katie, F*ck You, obama's grandmother said she saw him born in Kenya, and no, we haven't seen a REAL birth certificate.
I don't believe that Obama's grandmother said that for a second. Show me proof--a quotation, something official, anything. This sounds exactly like the kind of ridiculous drivel that would come out of a conservative pundit's mouth.
Let's just agree that Keith is an idiot.
The Connecticut Social Security number is kind of damning, IMO...
dude, I fail to see how creating a grandchild is like making a replacement child. If anything the grandparents only want a piece of their son to live on.
The article was really...lacking in infomation. Like whether this man had a wife. Whom I think should have the first say in this, since the man didn't leave behind a will expressing his wishes on the matter. Now if he didn't have a wife then by all means what does it hurt to help a couple of parents ease their grief. Its not hurting anyone else. If anything creating something beautiful out of this horrible accident should be considered a blessing.
Oooo no some a-hole named keith took a comment I made about someone else extremely personally. Bush was by far the worst president in US history. He was selfish and moronic, not to mention a war criminal. If you want to believe he was always good, just remember, he abandoned his civic duty to get drunk and do cocaine.
Concerning this article, I think they should adhere to their religious beliefs, and if that makes them happy grandparents, good for them. Not what I would've done, but it's not my place to judge.
Oh and about that bs story his grandmother told, if she told it at all, it was about his half brother who IS Kenyan.
And I agree with the other ladies, keith, you ARE an idiot. There is no proof she told that story, and there are records of Obama's birth in Hawaii. Just own up to your own racism so we can all move past that petty arguement of his birthplace.
Katie grow up and get a life. Obama hates all of us even if he is paying you to say dumb stuff.
Obama has been in office for over two years and the country just keeps going down the shitter. Blame Bush!
At alison- it most likely isn't missing info. I'd they didn't mention a wife it wasn't important because it didn't have one.
Also it may hurt th child. The last to be considered in creating or destroying an embryo.
Also how does everything always become about the USA? That's not aimed at you. It's rhetorical.
when the kid is older, i would like to see him ask about what happened to his dad
Well, there goes Darwin's Law...
At J Beck- No shit. The last possible refuge for Darwin's Law is about to be demolished. Now stupidity can be hereditary even AFTER death. Wonderful.
At almost everyone else- Why the hell are you discussing USA and politics in THIS article's comments? Are you that bitter about how shit worked out? Get a fucking life.
Leave it up to those people to be obsessed with continuing their line.
And, of course, by those people, I mean grandparents. ;)
Y'all are funny. Some American president cause this Israeli dude to drop an air conditioner on himself? Wow. I knew the US was powerful, but that's amazing.
Damn, people are so easily trolled on here!
Maybe Obama is the mother. Or Bush. It must be one or the other. All blame in the universe goes to one or the other.
Now you say something