A 62-year-old Western Australian woman has been given permission to remove sperm from her dead husband for possible use in posthumous fertilisation.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia approved the motion in a decision today, following an application by the woman after the death of her 61-year-old husband last month.
The pair cannot be named for legal purposes.
After he died, the man’s body was taken to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, but the hospital did not handle the woman’s request for sperm removal and she was forced to apply for a court order.
Testing of the man’s sperm found it remained viable.
The court heard that the couple had two children but they were both killed in seperate accidents. The woman’s 20-year-old cousin had previously volunteered to be a surrogate, however various reasons, such as the pandemic, meant this had not yet happened.
Although the order allowed the woman to remove the sperm she isn’t allowed to use it, with Judge Fiona Seaward saying that would require a seperate order.
Matters are further complicated as Western Australia does not currently allow posthumous fertilisation, so it must be transferred to another jurisdiction that does.
In her decision, Judge Seaward also reprimanded the hospital for failing to make a “designated officer” available to the woman, which would have avoided the court application.
“It is disappointing that it appears that, once again, an applicant has been required to attend court on an urgent basis and in traumatic circumstances to obtain an order that may, if the designated officer considered all criteria to be met, be granted in a faster and more streamlined manner,” she said.
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