The Delhi High Court has permitted the continuation of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) procedure for an Indian Army soldier, who is in a persistent vegetative state with no foreseeable scope of neurological recovery in the near future.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, in the order passed on April 13, 2026, said the soldier’s earlier consent, which was given when he started the IVF procedure, was sufficient even at this stage, and the consent of the wife would be treated as valid consent on his behalf for the purposes of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act.

The wife of the Army personnel had approached the court seeking directions for extraction and cryopreservation of her husband’s genetic material for IVF.

In June 2023, the couple had opted for the IVF procedure to conceive a child, but in July 2025, her husband fell from a considerable height while patrolling, which resulted in severe traumatic brain injury, she said.

Subsequently, while the soldier was undergoing treatment at the Army Hospital, the couple’s IVF treatment was stopped, and the petitioner approached the court, asserting her right to motherhood, dignity, and reproductive autonomy under the Indian Constitution.

The court observed that the petitioner and her husband had volunteered for the IVF treatment, and there was no material on record or any indication to show that the husband had not consented.

The court thus opined that although there was no express indication of consent from the petitioner’s husband at this stage, it was only “fair, reasonable, and just” for the authorities to take the IVF procedure “to its logical end”.

“But for this, the original consent given by the petitioner’s husband shall stand vitiated, and the very purpose for acceding to the IVF treatment shall be rendered otiose,” the court said.

With respect to the opinion of the Army Hospital’s Medical Board that the possibility of retrieving viable sperm was “meagre” in this case, the court remarked that whether the petitioner would beget a child was “not in human hands”.

“A living being obtains a body under the supervision of Daiva”, the court quoted from the Bhagavata Purana in its judgment.