After October 7, 2023, a process has progressed rapidly in Israel, which is both emotional in sound and scientifically very complex. Post Humous Sperm Retrieval (PSR), the process of extracting and preserving a man’s sperm after his death, has developed rapidly. This is so that in future his family can see a part of him in that person’s child.

After the war and continuous attacks that started from 7 October 2023, this process has progressed rapidly in the country. Families are beginning to adopt this option to carry forward the memory of their young sons, husbands and partners.

The biggest thing is that in Israel this process is not like a story, but has become a reality under the rules set by the government, doctors and family courts. The guidelines of the Ministry of Health clearly say that the sooner recovery is done after death, the greater are the chances of finding sperm. Recovery usually occurs within 24 hours, with live sperm being found in about 75 percent of cases, and some cells may still survive up to 72 hours. This is why families approach fertility clinics and hospitals without wasting any time.

Ashkelon Academic College epidemiologist and public health expert Prof. Bela Savitsky recently published a study in The Israeli Journal of Health Policy Research surveying the attitudes of 600 Jewish Israeli men toward PSR. Now she is pleading with the IDF to obtain consent for this process when soldiers join the army, so that the work for interested families can be done on time.

Savitsky told that she has personally gone through this grief, hence she considers the time limit to be important. “When my 21-year-old son, Jonathan Savitsky, was killed on October 7 while defending the Kisufim military post near the Gaza border, it took two days for his body to be identified,” he said in an interview with The Times of Israel.

Then, when “the soldiers came to our house with the news, it had been 48 hours since Jonathan had died, so I was unable to do what I wanted.”

Reports received between 2023 and 2025 show that a total of 236 applications were made for PSR during this period, out of which 229 recoveries were successful. That means the success rate has been 97 percent, which can be considered a very high rate for any medical procedure. What is surprising is not that this number is so large, but that most of the applications came from the mothers and fathers of the deceased, and it was about 77 percent. Many parents have the same argument, “We do not want our son’s lineage to end.”

Legal procedures have also changed due to the war. Earlier, the parents of the deceased had to take the approval of the court, but during the war, this condition was temporarily removed so that recovery could be done on time. In many cases, doctors successfully extracted sperm up to 37 hours after death, as documented in a scientific study that looked at 28 cases and found live sperm in 89%.

The most important part among all these things is the emotional aspect behind this process. Many families consider this a kind of “emotional closure”: they believe that even though the person is gone, his or her legacy can live on in a child. Many partners say it “keeps a part of him alive in my life.” There is also an ethical debate going on among doctors. How to ensure the wishes of a deceased person? Is just the feeling of family enough? Can any legal dispute arise in future after the birth of the child?

Israel’s social structure, the deep importance of family, military culture, and the tragedy of war have all made PSR a unique but real social process. It is no longer “rare” in fertility clinics but has become a procedure that doctors perform routinely, requiring robust lab technology, cryo-freezing, and fast decision making.

PSR is no longer just a medical procedure in Israel but has taken the form of a story. A story in which family sorrow, hope, science and war all go together. The families are searching for a new life in the same pain that war has snatched away so many lives.

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