Palestinians Sneak Sperm Out of Israeli Prisons

The wives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are getting pregnant in an odd way—by smuggling out the prisoners' sperm, NBC News reports. But the families won't say how they get the sperm past a glass separation, body search, and an airport-style scanner. "If I told you the way we smuggled it, definitely the army will prevent it from happening and there are prisoners we don’t want to deprive of this same chance," says mother-to-be Lidya Al-Rimawi, who only divulges that they used "a small nylon bag."

Salim Abu Khaizaran, an fertility doctor in Ramallah, invented the strategy because he saw the wives of prisoners paying "a very high price"—waiting for years while husbands served time, and then being too old to conceive. Worse, the freed husband is pressured to marry someone else to become a father, "which ... I feel is very sad," he said. But the Israel Prison Service isn't buying stories of sperm that leaps over glass separators: "One can question the ability to smuggle as claimed," a spokeswoman said dryly. (More Israel and Palestinians stories.)