Recently, a bizarre case has come up in the High Court of Delhi, in which the parents of a deceased man have appealed to the Delhi High Court to release the frozen semen of their dead son.
Frozen semen: Frozen bovine semen is a method of preserving bovine semen for artificial insemination for the future, even after the death of the donor.
In court, the parents stated that after their son’s death, they were the only claimants to all his bodily aids, so they requested the hospital to give their son’s frozen semen, but the hospital refused to provide them with the frozen semen, which is a violation of their rights.
The parents of the deceased lost their 30-year-old son to cancer in September of 2020. While their son was being treated, the doctors at Ganga Ram Hospital told the son that the cancer treatment was likely to lead to infertility, and hence, their son decided to preserve his semen but their son died during treatment, and after the son passed away, the parents asked for a semen sample from the hospital, but their request was rejected by the hospital. So the parents moved to the Delhi High Court.
Dinesh Goswami, counsel for the parents of the deceased, relied on the matter, Bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao, saying that the aggrieved parties can approach the court against private persons/bodies under Article 226.
At the same time, advocate Subhash Kumar, appearing for the hospital, said that Hospital is allowed to collect sperm samples from a person, but the rights change after the person dies. He cited the example of Ashok K Chatterjee v Union of India, in which the Hospital refused to release the semen sample of the deceased.
The court had issued notice to the doctor in the matter in December 2021, and now the bench of Justice V Kameswara Rao has remedied May 13 for further hearing of this matter.
