AP reports:
The parents of a 21-year-old West Point cadet fatally injured in a skiing accident can use his frozen sperm to produce a child, a judge ruled while noting potential ethical considerations.
Supreme Court Justice John Colangelo’s ruling, dated Thursday, gives Peter Zhu’s parents the ability to attempt conception with a surrogate mother using their late son’s sperm. The judge said Zhu’s parents have not decided whether they will try to use it.
Read more on Army Times. This case and ruling are not unprecedented but do raise a number of important ethical issues.
Maybe driver’s licenses should be revised to not only provide authorization for organ donation, but to indicate whether genetic material can be extracted for use by next of kin.