WASHINGTON
— Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter believes he has come up with a
way to help the Pentagon retain troops: freezing sperm and eggs.
As
part of an initiative to make military service more appealing and
family friendly, Mr. Carter has created a pilot program that will pay
for troops to have their reproductive cells preserved.
The
goal is to give those in uniform the peace of mind that if they are
hurt on the battlefield — hundreds of veterans suffered injuries to
their reproductive organs in Iraq and Afghanistan — they would still be
able to have children.
The
program is also meant to encourage women to stay in the military during
their 20s and 30s, a time when many leave after giving birth. By
freezing their eggs, they will have the flexibility to remain deployed
overseas or otherwise pursue their careers and put off having children.
Women
who reach 10 years of service — what Mr. Carter called “their peak
years for starting a family” — have a retention rate that is 30 percent
lower than their male counterparts.
Few
companies offer egg and sperm freezing, so the initiative will place
the Pentagon — one of the world’s largest employers — at the forefront
on the issue, reproductive advocates said. Some Silicon Valley companies
like Facebook have begun offering to cover the cost of freezing eggs —
which can be more than $10,000 — to help recruit top female candidates.
But
the initiative, which Mr. Carter first mentioned in a speech last week
about improving retention, raises legal and ethical questions that
Defense Department officials will have to navigate.
“Freezing
sperm and eggs is not like freezing chicken for dinner,” said Arthur
Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University’s Langone
Medical Center. “What happens if you die — can your wife use it? And
what if your mother wants grandchildren and your wife doesn’t, does that
mean the sperm can be used with a surrogate? If you’re cognitively
disabled, can it be used? And what happens if the company housing your
sperm or eggs goes bankrupt?”
Dr.
Caplan said that the practice of freezing eggs had become widespread
only in the past five years, and that it could be more problematic than
preserving sperm, which has been done for decades. He said the Pentagon
should inform service members that the freezing of eggs is not always
successful and can cause complications.
“If your eggs won’t work, you won’t find out until you’re 39,” Dr. Caplan said.
A
Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the legal and ethical
questions, saying that details were being worked out. The Defense
Department is expected to outline the program in a memo from Mr. Carter
in the coming weeks. The program, which applies only to active-duty
service members, will be re-evaluated in two years, and could ultimately
be made permanent.
“As
many families know all too well, these treatments are very expensive
and often require multiple attempts,” the spokesman, Matthew Allen,
said. “We know that providing this benefit across the board would result
in a significant cost for the department. In addition to cost, we want
to better understand the importance of this to our force, as well as its
impact on recruiting and retention. In addition to hormone therapies
and egg and sperm freezing, we are going to continue looking at ways to
provide additional support for these types of treatments in the future.”
The
Pentagon estimates that the program could cost about $150 million over
five years. It will be offered through Tricare, the military’s health
care plan.
During
the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, several cryogenic firms
offered to cover the cost for troops to have their reproductive cells
frozen. It is not clear whether any soldiers ultimately used those
materials to have children. In recent years, some fertility advocates
have lobbied the Defense Department to cover the cost.
Mr.
Carter mentioned the program in a speech last week at the Pentagon.
Outlining the Defense Department’s efforts to improve the lives of
service members, he focused on longer maternity leaves, improved child
care and the creation of lactation rooms at military facilities. He touched briefly on freezing sperm and eggs.
“This
investment will also provide greater flexibility for our troops who
want to start a family, but find it difficult because of where they find
themselves in their careers,” Mr. Carter said.
“Particularly
for women who are midgrade officers and enlisted personnel, this
benefit will demonstrate that we understand the demands upon them and
want to help them balance commitments to force and commitments to
family,” Mr. Carter said. “We want to retain them in our military.”
The
initiative is part of a series of measures that Mr. Carter has pushed
to create what he calls “the force of the future.” He is worried that
the military has not adapted enough to compete with top companies for
millennials, who put a greater emphasis on work-life balance than did
previous generations.
In
November, Mr. Carter said that the Pentagon would expand its sabbatical
programs to more service members so they could gain experience in
academia or different industries. He said that the military was working
to modernize its retirement benefits and was creating a LinkedIn-style
program to match service members with open positions. In December, he
opened all combat positions to women.
Sean
Tipton, a spokesman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine,
said he hoped that the rest of the federal government would follow the
military’s lead.
“This
is the difference between a returning military member being able to
have children or not,” Mr. Tipton said. “We think this country has an
obligation in its power to keep its military members whole, and building
families is certainly part of being whole.”
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