A woman in Changsha, Hunan Province has had her request to retain her boyfriend’s sperm denied by a local hospital, following his accidental but fatal fall from a high-rise, as reported by Xiaoxiang Morning Herald on July 24.
Yanyan and A Long (both pseudonyms), 20-year-old lovers, came to work in Changsha from Jiangxi Province earlier this year. The man, A Long, fell from a 25- storey-building to his death while installing windows on July 23. His girlfriend has expressed a wish to keep his sperm and use it to conceive a child.
The director of the sperm bank in the Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of Citic Xiangya told reporters that a man’s sperm can keep active for only 24 hours after death. “We would need to amputate the man’s sexual organs in order to extract the sperm, and our hospital does not have the legal qualifications to perform such an operation.”
The chief of medicine at another local hospital said that there was a “vacuum” regarding the permissibility for such surgery at his institution. “We are willing to help but unable to do so legally,” he added.
“A doctor is not likely to perform such an operation unless he has the proper certificate from the public security office, the recognition of legal experts and authorization from the family of the deceased. Without such clearance, no one dares to perform such surgery,” he added.
Globaltimes