Widow Gets Legal Nod to Use Husband’s Frozen Sperm to Conceive

The Supreme Court in New South Wales paved way for a widow from Sydney to conceive a child through her dead husband’s sperm

The Supreme Court in New South Wales paved way for a widow from Sydney to conceive a child through her dead husband’s sperm by ruling that it is her right to gain possession of the frozen sperm.

Jocelyn Edwards, whose husband Mark died due to a workplace accident, had managed to get a court order to extract the sperm from his body and get it stored at the IVF Australia laboratory until she could get a court order. Mark died a day before he and Jocelyn were supposed to sign consent forms that would begin the IVF treatment.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) - Introduction To Infertility and Reproduction
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New South Wales law prevents the initiation of IVF treatment unless both the partners signed the consent form. However that is not the case in some other states in Australia or in overseas and Judge Robert Allan Hulme said that while his ruling could allow Ms Edwards to initiate IVF treatment elsewhere, he added that it will not be directly responsible for such a step.

“Although there is no direct evidence, the clear and only inference is that she desires to have a child with the aid of assisted reproductive treatment”, he said.

Source-Medindia

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Infertility is a condition wherein couples fail to achieve pregnancy or if the woman has been unable to carry a pregnancy that results in a live birth.

Invitro Fertilisation
During IVF fertilization takes place invitro, in an incubated petri dish. The resulting embryo is transferred back to the uterus on Day 3 at the 6-8 cell stage. Sometimes the embryo transfer in done at the blastocyst stage on Day 5. The embryo is drawn into a specialized catheter along with a small amount of culture medium and is transferred to the uterus.