{"id":15736,"date":"2024-02-19T07:54:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T07:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/ukrainian-soldiers-will-soon-be-able-to-have-children-from-beyond-the-grave\/"},"modified":"2024-02-19T07:54:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T07:54:01","slug":"ukrainian-soldiers-will-soon-be-able-to-have-children-from-beyond-the-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/ukrainian-soldiers-will-soon-be-able-to-have-children-from-beyond-the-grave\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian soldiers will soon be able to have children from beyond the grave"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When Natalia Kyrkach-Antonenko\u2019s husband Vitalii\u00a0was killed on the frontlines fighting Russia,\u00a0she was 13 weeks pregnant with their daughter, Vitalina. <\/p>\n

Despite his death, Kyrkach-Antonenko found some new meaning, hope and purpose with the birth of their child. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy child is my whole life now. By taking care of my daughter, in a sense, I continue to take care of my husband. This is his continuation. Our continuation.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The couple had always planned to have a large family, even after Vitalii joined the army in the run-up to Putin\u2019s 2022 invasion. <\/p>\n

After having a pregnancy\u00a0that failed to develop\u00a0in the opening days of the war \u2013 which she attributes to the stress of the invasion \u2013 Kyrkach-Antonenko and her husband decided to freeze his sperm. In his brief interludes away from the frontline, she ended up falling pregnant with Vitalina before they eventually managed the cryofreezing. <\/p>\n


<\/strong>After his death in November 2022, Kyrkach-Antonenko didn\u2019t hesitate to pursue using her husband\u2019s frozen sperm for a further child. <\/p>\n

She was shocked to discover that legally she wasn\u2019t allowed to use the sperm after her husband\u2019s death, despite having his written permission. <\/p>\n

That should soon change. <\/p>\n

The Ukrainian parliament passed legislation in February to allow and fund the use of soldiers\u2019 frozen sperm in case of their death. Once\u00a0President Volodymyr Zelensky signs the bill into law,\u00a0it\u00a0will for the first time allow the widows of Ukrainian soldiers to use their dead partners\u2019 reproductive cells\u00a0\u2013\u00a0both sperm and eggs\u00a0\u2013\u00a0to have children. <\/p>\n

It will also enable wounded soldiers to use their preserved reproductive cells to have children where their injuries would normally make that impossible. <\/p>\n

Additionally, the state will pay to store these frozen cells for three years after\u00a0a\u00a0male or female soldier\u2019s death, with clauses specifically recognizing the deceased biological parent on the child\u2019s birth certificate. Currently, the government will pay for the initial freezing of reproductive cells. <\/p>\n

Cryopreservation has been an \u201curgent but difficult issue\u201d MP Olena Shulyak, co-author of the bill, said in a post on Telegram. <\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>The reality is that the military, whose normal life and plans were interrupted by the war, often did not have time to leave behind their progeny,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a law that will likely benefit many. <\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s battlefield losses are a closely guarded secret but US officials estimates some\u00a070,000 soldiers\u00a0have been killed and nearly twice that number wounded. <\/p>\n

This legislation may go some way to providing a lifeline for families beyond the grave. <\/p>\n

Kyrkach-Antonenko plans to use her husband\u2019s sperm to have at least one more child: a playmate for Vitalina. It\u2019s what her husband wanted, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fighting for the hope that we would have a family,\u201d Kyrkach-Antonenko said of Vitalii. <\/p>\n

Protection of soldiers\u2019 chance to have families has long been on the minds of some Ukrainians. <\/p>\n

Iryna Feskova, a fertility doctor at\u00a0a Kharkiv reproductive center \u201cSANA MED\u201d,\u00a0has offered free freezing and storage of reproduction cells for soldiers\u00a0since the very first months of\u00a0the\u00a0full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. <\/p>\n

Feskova said interest in cryopreservation\u00a0among\u00a0soldiers has boomed since 2022, from a handful before to dozens of people a year. She said her clinic currently stores sperm from dozens of\u00a0servicemen, while other clinics hold hundreds of samples. <\/p>\n

\u2018Worthy child of Ukraine\u2019<\/h2>\n

While cryopreservation may not be a taboo subject in Ukraine, it\u2019s certainly a novel one, given newfound prominence by the war. <\/p>\n

Fertility doctor Feskova said that her clinics works to spread awareness of cryopreservation \u2013 which is working \u2013 but the numbers that have taken it up suggest\u00a0it\u2019s still far from universal. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be an encouraging message from society that it is necessary to do this, that it is normal,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a good soldier, you have shown that you are a worthy son or daughter of Ukraine, so leave your descendants behind,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIron\u201d put his and his wife\u2019s plans to have a family on hold when he joined up following the 2022 invasion. While he likes the idea of cryopreservation, he has asked his wife to find happiness and a family with another man if the worst happens. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at the front not for ourselves, but for the future, for our descendants,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Currently, most of the clients\u00a0the\u00a0<\/strong>fertility doctor Feskova sees are men, but she expects more and more women to opt for cryopreservation as the war drags on. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a 20% increase in the number of women in the Ukrainian armed forces in both military and civilian roles since war with Russia began in\u00a0the\u00a0eastern Donbas region in\u00a02014, according to Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces Personnel Center. <\/p>\n

As the\u00a0 Ukrainian army has lifted any restrictions on the appointment and service of women soldiers in all positions (including combat), women are at a greater risk than ever of death and injury on the frontlines. <\/p>\n

Mariia, 25, a Ukrainian soldier, is considering cryopreservation of her eggs now that the law is being passed. <\/p>\n

She is currently on maternity leave and her husband is serving in the armed forces too. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a very uncertain time and my husband and I are thinking about having a second child later. We want to have this option if something happens,\u201d she said of cryopreservation. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a memory, a tribute to those fallen heroes who defend the country. They have the right and dignity to be reborn in their children,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

With civilian and military losses and refugees abroad, Ukraine has, she said, a \u201cdemographic problem.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kyrkach-Antonenko\u2019s husband Vitalii, a volunteer in a local defense unit before the 2022 invasion, who signed up to\u00a0the army the week before Putin invaded, told her he somehow knew that he wouldn\u2019t survive the war. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew his character, that he would save people, not hide, he was very positive, heroic,\u201d she said of her husband. <\/p>\n

With his daughter Vitalina \u2013 and perhaps more children in the future \u2013\u00a0she said,\u00a0\u201cIn a sense, it\u2019s as if he\u2019s still alive, his life goes on, he has children, something exists after his death. It\u2019s not like a person just disappeared, was buried and forgotten.\u201d <\/p>\n

As\u00a0Ukrainians fights for the life of their country, the births made possible by this new law herald a new future:, <\/strong>though\u00a0<\/strong>one tinged with sadness. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is joy,\u201d Kyrkach-Antonenko said, \u201cjoy through the prism of grief.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Natalia Kyrkach-Antonenko\u2019s husband Vitalii\u00a0was killed on the frontlines fighting Russia,\u00a0she was 13 weeks pregnant with their daughter, Vitalina. Despite his death, Kyrkach-Antonenko found some new meaning, hope and purpose with the birth of their child. \u201cMy child is my whole life now. By taking care of my daughter, in a sense, I continue to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}