Couple win legal fight to take their dead son’s sperm and use it to create a grandchild

An Indian couple are ‘delighted’ after they won a legal fight to use a sample of their dead son’s sperm to create a grandchild. 

The Delhi High Court ordered a hospital to hand over the frozen semen to the pair so they could have the baby through surrogacy. 

Harbir Kaur and her husband Gurvinder Singh said they approached the court because they wanted to carry on their son’s ‘legacy’ after he died at the age of 30 of blood cancer.

Delhi’s Ganga Ram Hospital initially refused in December 2020 to release his frozen semen that was being stored in a fertility lab. 

Preet Inder Singh, 30, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in June that year and died three months later in September. 

The Delhi High Court ordered a hospital to hand over the frozen semen to a couple so they could have the baby through surrogacy (stock photo)

His semen sample was frozen at the hospital on June 27, 2020, after he was admitted for treatment. 

Ms Kaur told the BBC following the ruling: ‘We were very unlucky, we lost our son. But the court has given us a very precious gift. We would now be able to get our son back.’

The couple, who are in their 60s, have said they would raise any child born using their son’s sperm.

Their two daughters have also pledged to look after the baby in the event of their deaths with one of them having agreed to be the surrogate.  

Justice Prathiba Singh said in her ruling last week that Indian law does not prevent posthumous reproduction if the owner of the sperm has given consent. 

She added that the parents were the legal heirs of the sample as Mr Singh did not have a wife or children. 

However, during the case, the Ganga Ram Hospital argued they could only release the frozen semen sample to a spouse. 

Ms Kaur and Mr Singh’s petition was also opposed by the Indian government who said surrogacy laws were in place to help infertile couples, not people who wanted to have a grandchild. 

Delhi’s Ganga Ram Hospital initially refused in December 2020 to release the man’s frozen semen that was being stored in a fertility lab (file picture of Dehli, India) 

But the judge told the court: ‘He was not married and did not have any partner. He intended for the sample to be used in order to bear a child. 

‘When he passed away, the parents being the heirs of the deceased, and semen samples being genetic material and constituting property, the parents are entitled for release of the same.’

Speaking of her son, Ms Kaur said ‘he loved his sisters’ and was ‘much loved by his friends.’

He was the screensaver on her phone and that she would look at his every morning. 

She said the ruling had given her a ‘glimmer of hope’ she would be able to bring her son back. 

There is currently no international consensus on the issue of posthumous reproduction. 

The US, UK, Japan, Czech Republic all allow the procedure as long as there is written consent. 

However, countries such as Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Malaysia, Pakistan, Hungary and Slovenia have no guidelines on the issue.