New York Post reports that a 62-year-old Australian widow has won the legal rights to harvest her dead husband’s sperm but she is currently facing challenges to receive permission to use it. Many factors affect her case including her age, legal rights for conceiving a baby of the deceased donor, and more. Read ahead to find out about the case and challenges.
Australian Widow appeals to RTC to use dead husband’s sperm
The 62-year-old woman whose identity is legally protected was preparing to conceive a child when her 61-year-old husband passed away at their home in Western Australia.
Widow, 62, Wins Legal Battle to Use Deceased Husband’s Sperm
A woman from Australia, aged 62, has been granted permission to extract sperm from her deceased husband.https://t.co/VSx2xlkQ62
— Parallel Facts (@ParallelFacts) January 3, 2024
On the next evening, she presented an urgent case to the Supreme Court and Judge Fiona Seaward granted her permission to harvest her dead husband’s sperm.
However, she will require the permission of the Reproductive Technology Council (RTC) to use the reproductive cells in a different state because using a deceased person’s cells is against the law in Western Australia, as per ABC News.
The couple dearly wished to have another child after tragically losing their 29-year-old daughter to a fishing trip accident and their 30-year-old son in a car accident in 2019.
Will she be able to have a baby?
The lady unfortunately can not conceive the baby herself because of her age but her late husband’s sperm was previously tested and they qualified for IVF. In this treatment, a woman’s egg is fertilized with sperm in a lab before it is implanted in the carrier.
Today in surrogacy, a woman in Australia has been granted permission to have her dead husband's sperm extracted, in the hope that she can have a baby with a surrogate mother.
She is 62. https://t.co/S1JUYRFvIe.
— SurrogacyConcern (@SurrogConcern) January 4, 2024
The woman’s cousin who is in her 20s and is living in the Philippines had volunteered to become a surrogate for the couple. However, the procedure is delayed due to the husband’s untimely death and legal obstacles for surrogacy that require them to live in the Philippines for some time.
The Supreme Court supported the woman stating that there aren’t any indication that shows her husband’s reluctance in supporting his wife. Therefore, one can assume that he wouldn’t have objected to the removal of the sperm tissue after his death.
Judge Seaward also sympathized with the woman and expressed her disappointment because yet another person had to appeal to the court on an urgent basis during traumatic circumstances for an order that could have been granted in a more streamlined manner.
Reproductive health experts are divided about posthumous fertilization
Roger Hart, professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Western Australia shared that medically conceiving a child of a deceased man is possible but the question remains whether it’s the right thing to do. He suggests that counselors and psychologists could provide better guidance.
The 20 yo cousin would be more than just a surrogate. She presumably would provide the egg & would be the genetic mother as well. A 61 yo man's sperm is more likely to carry genetic defects even without it's more adventurous journey to fertilise the mother. https://t.co/jRkdTykqVU
— NAFO Male♂️ Uvula Owner Gender Critical 🇺🇦✡️ (@BluffKingHal) January 4, 2024
He further explained that this procedure will require donor eggs because the woman is 62 years old. She is also planning to take the help of a surrogate and the sperm of her deceased husband so the child wouldn’t ever be able to know its father. The procedure will also require many steps.
Lastly, he mentioned that using reproductive cells from an older man, regardless if he is alive or deceased is a challenge. Medical science has found that after a certain age sperm starts to include a higher rate of chromosome abnormalities deletions which poses a risk for the child.
Therefore, Reproductive Technology Counsil’s decision holds great meaning in determining whether the 62-year-old grieving widow can have a child from her late husband’s sperm.
