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š“šµ PLEASE HELP GREG! https://gofund.me/d91c2e52 š“šµPostmortem Sperm Retrieval Is Turning Dead Men Into FathersIn Israel, parents of slain soldiers are pushing for their right to be future grandparents. Critics call it planned orphanhood.The Memorial Day gathering in Kiryat Shmona, like countless others across Israel in early May, begins in the morning at the local military cemetery. Everyone stands in silence as a siren blasts for two minutes. Wreaths are laid, speeches are made, and tears are shed.Later, about 20 people, young and old, sit around the table in the main room of a public housing apartment in this city near the Lebanese border. They help themselves to pasta, shawarma, cakes, and coffee, and they remember German Rozhkov.Rozhkov, a Ukrainian immigrant turned soldier, was killed 20 years ago, when he was 25. According to Israeli military authorities and press accounts, he tried to stop two gunmen shooting at motorists at the height of the second Palestinian uprising. Disguised in Israeli army uniforms, the shooters penetrated from Lebanon and opened fire on a main road. Rozhkov, passing by, engaged them in a 30-minute battle. Five Israeli civilians and Rozhkov were slain before the gunmen were killed, too. (The Palestinian Authority hasnāt publicly challenged this account and didnāt respond to multiple requests for comment.)The paraphernalia from Rozhkovās service forms a shrine in the apartment. His M16 rifle is framed on a wall with pictures of him wearing his green beret. On a desk sit military medals and trophies. Many of the mournersānow leafing through photos, gently mocking their younger selvesāknew Rozhkov. They served with him and were his neighbors. His mother, Ludmila, a former teacher in Crimea who lives alone in the apartment, tells the group that their presence is comforting. āAn apartment should be filled with children and light,ā she says in heavily Russian-accented Hebrew. āThank you for bringing them.āOne of the children darting among the mournersāsitting on laps and nodding shylyāis 5-year-old Veronica. She never met Rozhkov, of course, but sheās his daughter. Thirty hours after he was killed, his sperm was extracted, preserved in liquid nitrogen, and, 14 years later, used to fertilize the eggs of Irena Akselrod. She didnāt know Rozhkov, but she volunteered to bear and raise his child after meeting Ludmila. āI was moved by her story,ā Akselrod says. āSheās alone in Israel, she lost her only son, and had no grandchild.āPersuading a judge to grant Ludmila Rozhkov and Akselrod the right to Germanās sperm included testimony about his desire for children. But there was no case law covering when a dead manās sperm could be used to produce offspring. In his ruling, the family court judge wrote: āWhen the law doesnāt provide an answer, the court must turn to the principles of Jewish heritage. āGive me children, or I shall die,ā our mother Rachel cried out. This logic reflects manās desire to continue through his offspring the physical and spiritual existence of himself, his family, and people. We are told, āBe fruitful and multiply.āāāWhen she gave birth to Veronica, the Russian-born Akselrod was 42 and divorced with a teenage son. She doesnāt consider herself Germanās widow, only the mother of his child. But she makes a point of honoring him, taking her daughter to the monument the city recently constructed in his memory. She and Veronica, who starts first grade in September, live in public housing near Ludmila Rozhkov. When Akselrod is at her factory job, Rozhkov picks up Veronica from school. One room in her apartment is filled with toys. At the front door, thereās a crayon drawing by Veronica of a smiling man, woman, and child. She labeled it in Hebrew: āDaddy, Mommy, and Veronica.āBeing an active grandmother is something Rozhkov feared sheād never get to experience on that day in March 2002 when officers came to visit her with the unbearable news. When she saw them, she blocked the door in an attempt to avoid hearing the truth. Later, in grief, she shouted out in Russian, āWe must get his sperm!ā No one, including those who spoke Russian, knew what she was talking about.Rozhkov isnāt sure herself where the thought came from. The procedure had never been done in the Israeli military. But Germanās best friend, who was with her, contacted the army. The call was taken by Yaffa Mor, the chief casualty officer of Germanās brigade, whose job is to help families of the dead and wounded. āIt sounded bizarre and honestly insane,ā says Mor, now a civilian.It turned out, though, that the procedure existed. After a man dies, his sperm cells live up to 72 hours and can be retrieved with an incision to the testicle, then frozen. āWe checked with legal and medical authorities and went ahead,ā Mor says. āToday it is becoming routine.ā