Biological Will™ Precedents

Irit Rosenblum litigated groundbreaking Biological Will™ cases in which the deceased’s parents won the right to carry out their son’s Biological Will™ by choosing a single woman to conceive with their son’s sperm and raise the child as her own. The world’s first case of posthumous reproduction with a partner unknown to the donor is Keivan Cohen in Israel. In 2007, Cohen’s parents won the right to designate a woman to conceive with the sperm that was extracted after his death in 2002, after proving in court that he wished to father children. The case was unique, both because Cohen had not left his wish in writing, and because he did not know the woman that will raise his child. On November 25, 2013, following a decade-long legal struggle by Irit Rosenblum, a baby girl was born to a single mother, 11 years after her father’s death.

The Keivan Cohen case paved the way for a string of legal precedents in Israel. In 2009, Family Court approved the verbal Biological Will™ of Idan Snir, and empowered his parents to donate his sperm to a single woman who wishes to raise a child from a known sperm donor. In 2011, an Israeli court approved a written Biological Will™ in which Baruch Posniansky empowered his parents to choose a single woman who wishes to conceive with his sperm. These cases affirmed the men’s right to father children after death independent of a female partner, legally validated the Biological Will™ and recognized its benefits for all stakeholders.

The world’s first and only case of posthumous maternity was the Nissim and Keren Ayash case. In 2011, the Ayash child was born in the US to a surrogate mother from the frozen embryo created by Keren and Nissim before Keren succumbed to cancer. The child is being raised by his father and new wife. In 2013, three new babies came to the world, born to single mothers years after their father’s death through the Biological Will™, following legal battles waged by Irit Rosenblum.