Modern Tech & Ethics: Is artificial insemination of the dead OK?

naisho

naisho

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Judge OKs collecting of dead son's sperm

Long story short:
A 21 year old died from an assault. His mother wants to collect his sperm, postmortem. For "his kids", they will be conceived through a method such as artificial insemination*. The judge OK'ed his mom's request. The mother now plans to have grandchildren through this method.

* (what is artificial insemination? Click here)

The judge, mother + deceased child are all located in Travis County, Texas.





Should other cases allow for this method to be OK'ed? Is this wrong? Balanced? Immoral or Unethical?




Biomedical technology has long allowed for this to happen, and our technology is improving as we speak. Within anywhere from now to 30 years, this, genetics & alterations through medical methods will become the debating clash of the world. Of scientists, professionals and ethics that will depict the future of our lives.

I am interested in your viewpoints on this. We get a head start ;)
 
We need to allow cloning, dead people artificial insemination, aborted embryos, anything we can get our hands on for scientific research. no line drawn.

oh and it is women's right to her uterus. if she wants to add a bunch of glob of cells in it, so she should. If she want to remove it, she should also.
 
btw, I think it is really incest without sex if she plan on using her own eggs

donation to another woman is fine as people donate their sperm all the time. Actually it is easier because the child would not go looking for his biological father in the future and yet they can know their biological history at the same time. But I think people have to make it clear if they want donate their sperm or not before they die.
 
He can't give permission for his DNA to be used and it's unlikely that anyone would want a surgeon to cut some sperm out of his balls after he died so his mother can live out her fantasy of having a grandchild. The mother is likely just using this as an attempt to "reclaim" her dead son anyways.
 
Sounds macabre and ghoulish to me! But to each their own. Then again, I'm an organ donor. I've often wondered how people "really" feel after receiving organs from a deceased person?

Perhaps if I were in the mother's shoes, and it was my only son, and he died, I might want to do the same thing.
 
Mockingbird said:
He can't give permission for his DNA to be used and it's unlikely that anyone would want a surgeon to cut some sperm out of his balls after he died so his mother can live out her fantasy of having a grandchild. The mother is likely just using this as an attempt to "reclaim" her dead son anyways.
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Yeah, I agree with you on the informed consent thing. This situation opens up all kinds of ethical questions. For one, does the mother have the right to her son's sperm? Did he sign a power of attorney giving her the legal right to make medical decisions for him if he were to become incapacitated? Depending on who carries this baby, and the fact that she would be a single mother and the father would be deceased, would the grandmother actually have any rights regarding this child once it was born? These are just the first questions that popped into my mind.
 
Harshly, jmo.. There are no permission from a dead body, unless if he signed on his will.
 
$ and money talks, if one has enough cash there is probably someone who will likely do it for you, whether of ethics or not.

When someone dies today, most people probably think, "Oh, s/he died." No one is immediately thinking about retrieving their gamete cells and preserving them for future use.
Now when more cases like this is appearing, causing this thing to spark controversy, other people realize it.
Give it some years and likely some law or consent form is going to have to be arisen to prevent misuse from mainstream civilization.

The technology is there already.

Cash and profits are waiting to be made. Customer/customer's family will pay for the process (and most likely with interest of success, not the money involved), surrogate mother makes cash, doctor makes cash, potential clinic makes cash.
It seems like a win-win situation for business.

Think it around outside the bun and apply it to a rich man scenario or celebrity who might do it like Hugh Hef, and so on.
I can name some people who get "incarnated" through this method will probably spark lots of negativity. Imagine if they had access to a "Hitler's" sperm who gave his consent, and has cash to fork over.

How about them children of this era who are the result of vitro/surrogates/artificial insemination and successfully achieve a PhD in vitro/genetic surgery?
Those who realize their background who came this way, may be more likely to allow others than the Dr. who was the product of "love".
 
I wonder how the mother will go about finding a willing person to be a surrogated mother. Hence if they uses the surrogated mothers egg. Then she will have the right to change her mind to keep the child as her own.

If grandma is planning on keeping, and raising these kids. She wants to keep the family name going. But a lot of in answered questions falls.
 
Babyblue said:
I wonder how the mother will go about finding a willing person to be a surrogated mother. Hence if they uses the surrogated mothers egg. Then she will have the right to change her mind to keep the child as her own.

If grandma is planning on keeping, and raising these kids. She wants to keep the family name going. But a lot of in answered questions falls.
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Could be the deceased son had a girlfriend/fiancee....but I feel it's illegal to do something like this without ur consent.

Then again, I'm sure it's done all over the world, not just for sperm but for all other organs as well. Black market. Even prisoners who die in prison and their family has "forgotten them". ....homeless people with no families, just forgotten people.

No telling! Removing the sperm or any organs from a deceased person is illegal and ethical. But, it's done. Who really knows what happens to our bodies when we die in the hospital? Or anywhere! Only the surgeon "knows for sure". And there's a lot of $$ to be made there. And greed is the root to all evil.
 
rockin'robin said:
Could be the deceased son had a girlfriend/fiancee....but I feel it's illegal to do something like this without ur consent.

Then again, I'm sure it's done all over the world, not just for sperm but for all other organs as well. Black market. Even prisoners who die in prison and their family has "forgotten them". ....homeless people with no families, just forgotten people.

No telling! Removing the sperm or any organs from a deceased person is illegal and ethical. But, it's done. Who really knows what happens to our bodies when we die in the hospital? Or anywhere! Only the surgeon "knows for sure". And there's a lot of $$ to be made there. And greed is the root to all evil.
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Apparently it is legal, since she got the judges approval.


She more than likely had power of attorney or prior permission.


Perhaps that was her sons wishes.
 
Babyblue said:
Apparently it is legal, since she got the judges approval.


She more than likely had power of attorney or prior permission.


Perhaps that was her sons wishes.
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I personally think that this situation creates more questions than can be answered. The ethical implications are huge. Many times, what is legal or illegal is in opposition to ethical guidelines.
 
jillio said:
I personally think that this situation creates more questions than can be answered. The ethical implications are huge. Many times, what is legal or illegal is in opposition to ethical guidelines.
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I agree. This is more of an ethical thing than it is a legal matter.

Once the judge approved for what matter or evidence the Mom may have. Of the mother to be able to "harvest" the sons sperm.

I also wonder how was "they" were able to save the sperm during the court process.

Once a person passes. Doesn't everything else inside?

Makes me wonder if the son was one life support beforehand.

Like I said before there is more to the story than we know!
Still. A lot of in answered questions in this situation, that we do not know of.
 
Babyblue said:
Once a person passes. Doesn't everything else inside?
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Hmm. It depends on what function exactly, but I am sure you are referring to the sperm cells (haploid gametes).

I think under constant bodily cellular respiration, meaning that the human is alive, sperm can survive in the scrotum/testes for around a week; but it is constantly produced.

Once it's outside or the human is dead, I have no idea but I recall reading somewhere before that it has a small time frame to survive until it dies. I think it was under 24 hours but I'm no urologist. But deep freezing them can slow down their termination process and that's the what sperm banks do.
 
I've heard about this story and she's kinda strange, I mean if a grandchild is born, she or he is going to ask about his or her own father, what is the grandmother going to say? Is she going to say well your father was dead before you were conceived. That just doesn't sound so right or normal.
 
Babyblue said:
I agree. This is more of an ethical thing than it is a legal matter.

Once the judge approved for what matter or evidence the Mom may have. Of the mother to be able to "harvest" the sons sperm.

I also wonder how was "they" were able to save the sperm during the court process.

Once a person passes. Doesn't everything else inside?

Makes me wonder if the son was one life support beforehand.

Like I said before there is more to the story than we know!
Still. A lot of in answered questions in this situation, that we do not know of.
Click to expand...

Sperm can remain viable for some time after death.

The ethical questions that are raised are not only what the mom wants, or whether she is legally entitled to harvest her son's sperm, but the questions of the well being of the surrogate, as she is the real patient, and what is ethical regarding any child that would come from the procedure as a potential patient. That is why I say the ethical implications are so complicated. What is legal is quite often, unethical when looked at from the perspective of everyone involved.
 
Cheri said:
I've heard about this story and she's kinda strange, I mean if a grandchild is born, she or he is going to ask about his or her own father, what is the grandmother going to say? Is she going to say well your father was dead before you were conceived. That just doesn't sound so right or normal.
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Yep, there is no way a kid could understand that one.
 
I think this raises alot of question. It depends on how old the son was, if he was old enough did he have a wife or a girlfriend..did they want kids..so on and so fourth. But if the mother wants to have a complete stranger carry her grandbaby or if she wants to that is unethical
 
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