Australian woman allowed to use dead husband's sperm for IVF treatment

[News_Editor]

Australian woman allowed to use dead husband's sperm for IVF treatment

2011-05-23 20:15:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

SYDNEY (BNO NEWS) -- An Australian woman has won a legal battle to gain possession of her dead husband's sperm in an attempt to have his baby, local media reported on Monday.

Jocelyn Edwards, 40, married her husband Mark in 2005 and later began to discuss the use of fertility treatment and assisted reproductive technology after she found out she was unable to get pregnant, despite the fact that both Mark and Jocelyn had a child from a previous relationship.

In August 2010, the couple from Sydney visited a clinic and conducted tests after which they expressed their desire to try in-vitro fertilization (IVF), a process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside the body. It is a treatment used when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed.

On August 6, the couple was scheduled to have an appointment at the Westmead Fertility Center to sign consent forms, which would allow them to begin IVF treatment. But a day before, on August 5, tragedy struck when Mark fell to his death from a third floor when a railing gave way.

"It shouldn't have happened. Your wife would expect you to come home ... we had a family dinner that night. We'd be celebrating his godsister's birthday," Jocelyn told the Daily Telegraph last year.

Late that evening on August 5, a doctor called Jocelyn to tell her that she should wake a judge for a court order for the sperm of Mark to be removed from his body. The next day, about 24 hours after Mark died, doctors were able to extract useful sperm.

But the removal of Mark's sperm was also the beginning of a legal battle as the state bans IVF treatment without the consent of the donor. It ended on Sunday, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday.

According to the newspaper, Justice Hulme ruled that Jocelyn will not be allowed to have the sperm inseminated in New South Wales. Instead, Jocelyn will gain possession of the sperm so she can use it for IVF treatment in another jurisdiction.

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