Egypt's State Commissioners Authority has urged the Ministry of Interior to permit a woman to obtain a sperm sample from her imprisoned husband so she can pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF).
In a judicial report issued Sunday, the advisory body to the Administrative Court said the ministry should facilitate the necessary medical tests and sample collection to enable the procedure.
Though nonbinding, the recommendation argues that the request aligns with Egypt's constitutional guarantees of health care and family life. Preventing the woman from accessing the sample would infringe on her fundamental right to motherhood, the report stated.
The case was filed in January by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights and lawyer Ehab Elgarhy. The plaintiff had previously conceived triplets through IVF, but miscarried due to psychological distress following her husband's arrest in 2015. He spent several years in pretrial detention before receiving a 15-year prison sentence in March 2022.
Now 36, she says her chances of becoming a mother are shrinking. According to her court filing, prosecutors told her her husband will remain incarcerated until at least 2037.
"I thought about requesting a conjugal visit, but my health doesn’t allow for natural pregnancy, and such visits are no longer permitted in Egyptian prisons," she wrote. "IVF is my only option."
The commissioners' report cited Egypt's Prison Organization Law, which guarantees prisoners the right to health care and obliges the Ministry of Interior to transfer inmates to external hospitals when necessary. It argued that allowing the prisoner's wife to obtain a medical sample and carry out IVF procedures aligns with these obligations, as well as constitutional and legal protections for family life and reproductive health.
The document also drew on a 2007 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights involving a British prisoner, Kirk Dixon. The court found that denying Dixon and his wife access to artificial insemination violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects private and family life.
