An Israeli family grieving the sudden death of their daughter has ignited an unusual global debate: Do parents have the right to harvest and fertilize their dead child's eggs?



After 17-year-old Chen Aida Ayash was fatally struck by a car last month, her parents decided to have her organs donated. But that's not all — they also sought a court order to extract and fertilize her eggs with donated sperm and freeze them as embryos, according to a CBS News report.



So far, the court only granted them the right to harvest the eggs. But the whole case sets a creepy precedent. This is nowhere near the same as a soldier who prepares for deployment by having his semen frozen and held at a sperm bank, granting permission for his wife to use it after his death. Here, the deceased person is just a teenager. How could her family prove she actually wanted children? She never gave permission. Even if she had, she was a minor.



Chen's parents haven't said exactly why they've asked for this procedure. While the Independent reported that the family has dropped their bid to fertilize the eggs that have been harvested, the court decision leaves open the door for relatives to try fertilizing them in the future — or for other families to follow suit.



What do you think: Should a family ever have the right to harvest the eggs of a deceased child?