Should the wives of soldiers who died in combat be allowed to use their sperm for assisted reproduction? As the number of victims of the Russian invasion continues to increase, the issue is debated within Ukrainian society.
2 mins
With our special correspondents in kyiv, Anastasia Becchio And Boris Vicith
It’s a ritual she repeats every day: changing the flower water, sweeping around the grave of her husband, Vladislav Tulov, lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, who died in combat fourteen years ago. month. After the death of her husband, Natalya decided to continue the in vitro fertilization program that the couple had started, but the four embryos that were implanted did not last. “ I had so much hope that I could somehow prolong his existence, giving life to the flesh of his flesh. A few days before he died, he told his guys about our plans and told them : “If I die, I want Natalya to go to the end,” she says.
Last year, Ukraine’s parliament passed a law supposedly allowing servicemen and women to freeze their reproductive cells for free before going to the front. One of the points of the law which was to come into force at the end of March required the destruction of the frozen sperm of soldiers after their death. But faced with protests, the deputies backed down.
“ This is a delicate subject, the State must regulate legal aspects, children’s law, family law. But the families of those who risk their lives on the front must be able to have a choice, observes Alina Horbenko, obstetrician-gynecologist, head of the department of assisted reproductive technologies at the ICSI clinic in kyiv. Fertility clinics in Ukraine do everything possible to help servicemen and their wives preserve their future. »
Since the implementation of the free reproductive cell freezing program, more than 100 military personnel have already used the clinic’s services.
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