'Fatherhood After Death': Geula Even interviews Irit Rosenblum

Channel One Newscast: 'Fatherhood After Death': Geula Even interviews Irit Rosenblum.

An Israeli court allowed the parents of a young man who died of cancer to use his frozen sperm, which he had deposited in a sperm bank, in order to conceive a child. Baruch Posniansky's parents have already found a woman who wished to be impregnated with the sperm he left. All this is possible thanks to a detailed Biological Will that was left by the deceased. Irit Rosenblum, founder and executive director of New Family Organization, accompanied this process.

Geula Even: Have you been accompanying this process from the moment when the young man wrote the Biological Will, or afterwards, accompanying his parents?

Irit Rosenblum: I've been accompanying this process since its inception in 2001, when I created the option of leaving a Biological Will. I turned to the young population of soldiers, whose life was endangered, to enable them to leave a biological legacy if, god forbid, their reproductive capability was damaged in the course of their military service.

Geula Even: And was the Posniansky family one of the ones that responded?

Irit Rosenblum: I've been accompanying the Posniansky family since before Baruch's death.

Geula Even: Did they waver in their decision, or did they immediately know that this is what they needed to do? The parents and the son?

Irit Rosenblum: By the time they came to me, their decision had been made. They came to us knowing that this process was possible. They had heard of other cases in the media. They had seen a story of another case handled by New Family on the news and decided that very moment that they needed to act.

Geula Even: You were the one that advised that, a decision is one thing, but that the decision must be recorded in a detailed written statement, so that when the time comes, the court will approve its implementation?

Irit Rosenblum: Yes, the Biological Will cases we have handled since 2001 were very well-known. One of the insights we gained from these cases was that the will of the deceased should be explicitly stated in writing. It is of utmost importance that we not have to guess, to interpret or to struggle to prove the deceased's will in a court of law.

Geula Even: Unfortunately, there are many cases of sudden, unexpected death, not necessarily during military service. In those cases, we have to guess that this young person would have wanted to have children.

Irit Rosenblum: Right. Most of us have life insurance. Life insurance is death insurance, and we are not afraid of it. We have an aversion that we need to get over.

Geula Even: Signing an organ donor card is more or less the same psychologically.

Irit Rosenblum: Right. Remember that the great thing that we did was create a new possibility for young women who wish to conceive, but whose only option was taking anonymous donations from the sperm bank, because they are single. We are offering an amazing new option.

For further details, see our website at: http://www.newfamily.org.il/en/
Call Us: 972 3 566 0504

Category:

News & Politics

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• channel 1
• Geula Even
• interview
• Irit Rosenblum
• Fatherhood
• Death
• Israeli court
• New Family Organization
• Biological Will
• soldiers
• frozen sperm
• Baruch Posniansky
• iba