Biological Will™ Bank

Biological wills™ apply property law to biological matter and assume that human reproductive material is property that can be willed and inherited like other assets. Biological wills ensure that a person’s wishes for a biological legacy are legally binding. New Family founded the world’s only Biological Will Bank, and is the only known organization drafting and storing biological wills.

In the landmark 2006 Keivan Cohen case, the parents of a 20-year old soldier killed in action won the right to use the sperm retrieved after his death for posthumous reproduction after proving in court that it was his explicit wish to father children. The case, which was reported in media from around the world, was unique, both because Cohen had not left his wish in writing, and because the woman that would carry his child was not known to him during lifetime. Since then, court attitude in Israel has been changed to require written consent for posthumous reproduction.

In 2012, Israeli court approved implementation of a written biological will for the first time with any further court hearings apart from the initial formal request. Setting a precedent for all future biological will implementation requests to be treated as normal procedure.