Woman, 62, wins legal battle in Western Australia to remove her dead husband’s sperm in bid to have another baby

A widow has been granted a court order to have her husband's sperm posthumously collected in a desperate last attempt to have a child.

The 62-year-old woman, whose name is legally withheld, appeared before the Supreme Court of Western Australia on December 18 for an emergency hearing to argue her case the day after her husband of more than 40 years died at Died aged 61.

She told the court they had been planning to have another child for the past four years after their two children tragically died.

Their 29-year-old daughter drowned during a fishing trip in 2013 before their son died in a car accident in 2019 at the age of 35.

While Supreme Court Justice Fiona Seaward granted her the right to dispose of her husband's sperm, she will still need a court order to use it as the state bans posthumous fertilization.

The court heard the couple had gone to a fertility clinic in the hope of having another child, but were told she would not be able to carry a baby due to her age.

“The evidence of the applicant, both in her affidavit and orally, is that since the death of her son, she and the deceased had discussed having another child using his sperm,” Judge Seaward's judgment reads.

The man's sperm was tested and found to be strong enough to fertilize an egg, and the couple found a potential surrogate in her 20-year-old Filipino cousin.

The surrogate route had its own setbacks, as the couple believed that Philippine laws required them to live in the country for a while.

Their move to the Southeast Asian country was continuously postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the death of her mother-in-law and work commitments.

After hearing about the woman's tragic history and the couple's attempt to conceive a child, Judge Seaward ruled that she could collect the sperm.

“In issuing these orders I was aware that they were limited in their operation and that they did not allow the semen and associated tissue removed from the body to be used in any way,” the judgment reads .

The Supreme Court of Western Australia (pictured) made the emergency order after hearing the couple had been planning to have another child for four years before his sudden death.

The emergency measure was taken so that the sperm could still be recovered from her husband's body.

“If it were not done urgently after death… it would forever prevent the applicant from using the sperm in an attempt to conceive a baby,” the judgment reads.

Although the use of posthumously extracted semen is illegal in the state, courts have allowed others to undergo the insemination process between the states of Queensland and the ACT, which have more lenient laws.