Aussie woman, 62, wins right to take dead husband’s sperm
The widow says they were planning to have another child via surrogate
Daily TribuneThe widow says they were planning to have another child via surrogate
A 62-year-old Australian woman can harvest her dead husband's sperm, after convincing a judge the pair were considering having a baby before he died.
The couple started thinking about having another child after their 31-year-old son was killed in a car accident in 2019, according to legal documents released Wednesday.
Six years earlier, their 29-year-old daughter had drowned during a fishing trip.
Spurred by these traumatic events, the couple started investigating whether the 61-year-old husband's sperm could be used to impregnate a surrogate.
After the husband died at home on 17 December, his wife — who cannot be named for legal reasons — asked the hospital morgue to collect and store his sperm.
But the hospital dragged its feet, according to legal documents, forcing the woman to seek an urgent order in the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
Researchers say reproductive tissue should ideally be collected between one and two days after death.
