Members of Australia’s elite Special Air Services (SAS) have started having their sperm frozen ahead of an expected deployment for possible war in Iraq, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Doctors at a Sydney sperm bank told the Sun Herald newspaper two SAS commandos had contacted them over the past two weeks after learning of their possible deployment to the Gulf.‘‘It’s a bit of insurance so that the option is there if they are incapacitated in some way while they are serving overseas,’’ Geoff Driscoll of IVF Australia told the newspaper.‘‘It’s happened before in times of crisis that defence force personnel have thought ahead and decided to freeze their sperm,’’ he said.‘‘When they get back home safely they let us know and we throw it away,’’ he said. Prime Minister John Howard announced on Friday that about 150 SAS troops and other military forces would likely be deployed in the Gulf region in the coming weeks in preparation for a possible war in Iraq.The government also confirmed that all leave for SAS soldiers had been cancelled as part of the war preparations.
