[Mb-civic] CBC News - COURT DENIES WOMAN RIGHT TO USE DEAD HUSBAND'S SPERM

Fri May 27 17:08:54 PDT 2005

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COURT DENIES WOMAN RIGHT TO USE DEAD HUSBAND'S SPERM
WebPosted Fri May 27 08:18:15 2005

Canberra---An Australian woman has lost a Supreme Court battle to have
her dead husband's baby.

The 36-year-old woman's husband died in a car accident in 1998.

At that time, she successfully applied to the court to have sperm removed
from his body. Her plan was to try to get pregnant by in vitro
fertilization.

But the courts changed tack on Friday ruling the law did not allow for
the procedure.

Justice Kim Hargrave said the procedure could not go ahead because the
husband did not give his written consent before he died.

"It should not be assumed that such consent would necessarily have been
forthcoming if the matter had been considered by the late husband," the
judge said.

Hargrave said despite the ethical considerations raised by the case, the
court was bound to apply the law as it stood, with any changes to the law
to be made by Parliament.

With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.