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Parliament passes bill to preserve soldiers' reproductive cells free of charge

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Parliament passes bill to preserve soldiers' reproductive cells free of charge
Vials of donor sperm frozen by liquid nitrogen in a holding tank at the California Cryobank California in an undated photo. (For illustrative purposes) (Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)

Ukraine's parliament on Nov. 22 passed a draft law in the first reading allowing for the free collection and preservation of reproductive cells for Ukrainian soldiers, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.

The proposed bill would enable Ukrainian soldiers to extract and store their reproductive cells in cryobanks for free so that if they receive injuries on the battlefield that affect their sexual function, they can still have children.

The bill would apply to both men and women.

In addition, it would enable women to have children with a male partner who has been killed in the line of duty.

Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security wrote about how soldiers and their partners could possibly have children together even if one of them is injured or killed in the war.

The draft law passed with 271 votes in favor and 0 against.

In order to become law, it will need to be passed in parliament on a second reading and then signed by the president.

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Nate Ostiller

News Editor

Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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