Dead soldier's sperm used to impregnate a woman he never met..

Almost sounds like the headline of a tabloid magazine, but it's true and it puts a whole different spin on the idea of using a surrogate mother:

Keivan Cohen, 20, was shot dead in 2002 by a Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip. He was single and left no will. But at the urging of his parents, a sample of his sperm was taken two hours after his death and has been stored in a hospital since.

When the family tried to gain access to the sperm, however, the hospital refused, on the ground that only a spouse could make such a request.

Arguing that their son yearned to raise a family, his parents challenged that decision in court. On January 15, after a four-year legal battle, a Tel Aviv court granted the family's wish and ruled the sperm could be injected into a woman selected by Cohen's family.

The ruling also ordered the Ministry of Interior to register any children born as a result of the insemination as children of the deceased.

While this didn't happen in the US it raises the specter of many things that could happen, not all of them positive.