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France lets widow have child with dead husband's sperm

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France lets widow have child with dead husband's sperm
An illustration of intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Photo: Wellcome Images/Flickr

A French court has ruled that the semen of a dead man can be sent to Spain to be used for artificial inseminiation.

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France's highest administrative body, the Conseil d'Etat, ruled on Tuesday that Mariana Gomez-Turri could have her late husband's semen transferred to Spain, reported Le Monde newspaper
 
The woman had lived in Paris with her husband, Italian Nicola Turri, where he was able to freeze his gametes prior to starting chemotherapy for lymphatic cancer.
 
He died in July 2015 at the age of 30, after which his wife started her fight to have the sperm exported back to Spain where she now lives.
 
Post-mortem insemination is banned in France, but legal in Spain.
 
A tribunal originally rejected her application.
 
The court found that "the application of French law would lead to deliberately disproportionate consequences" and ordered "all measures necessary [were taken] to enable the export of the gametes to Spain".
 
Gomez Turri’s lawyer described the decision as "extraordinary" and said the two were "extremely pleased by the decision". 
 
 

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