Couple wins legal battle to take their deceased son’s sperm and use it to create a grandchild

An Indian couple is ‘delighted’ after winning a legal battle to use a sample of their late son’s sperm to create a grandchild.

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

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

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

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

An Indian couple are ‘delighted’ after winning a legal battle to use a sample of their late son’s sperm to create a grandchild (stock photo)

The Delhi High Court has ordered a hospital to hand over the frozen sperm to a couple so that 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 after the court ruled in their favour: ‘We were very unlucky, we lost our son. But the court has given us a very precious gift. Now we could get our son back.”

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

Their two daughters have also promised to care for the baby in the event of their deaths, with one of them agreeing to be the surrogate mother.

Judge Prathiba Singh said in her ruling last week that Indian law does not prohibit posthumous reproduction if the owner of the sperm had given consent.

She added that the parents were the legal heirs of the sample as Mr Singh had no wife or children.

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

Ms Kaur and Mr Singh’s petition was also opposed by the Indian government, which said surrogacy laws were introduced 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 sperm stored in a fertility lab (file photo from Dehli, India)

But the judge told the court: ‘He was not married and had no partner. He planned to use the monster to have a child.

‘When he died, because the parents are the heirs of the deceased and semen samples are genetic material and constitute property, the parents are entitled to their release.’

Speaking about her son, Mrs Kaur said he “loved his sisters” and was “dearly loved by his friends”.

He was the screensaver on her phone and she looked at his every morning.

She said the ruling had given her a “glimmer of hope” that she could bring her son back.

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

The US, UK, Japan and 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 in this regard.