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Gamete Retrieval after Death or Irreversible Unconsciousness: What Counts as Informed Consent?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2006

CARSON STRONG
CARSON STRONG
Affiliation:
Department of Human Values and Ethics, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee
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Extract

The first reported case of postmortem sperm retrieval occurred in 1978, involving a man who became brain dead after a motor vehicle accident and whose wife requested removal of his sperm so that she could be artificially inseminated. Physicians performed the retrieval by surgically excising the ducts that transport sperm from the testes (the epididymis and vas deferens) and removing sperm from them. Since that time, several other methods for retrieving sperm from such patients have been reported, and at least 141 cases have been documented in which requests were made for removal of sperm from men who were dead or irreversibly unconscious. Moreover, there have been several reports of pregnancies and births resulting from assisted reproduction using sperm retrieved in such cases.

Type
SPECIAL SECTION: THE POWER OF CHOICE: AUTONOMY, INFORMED CONSENT, AND THE RIGHT TO REFUSE
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 2006 , pp. 161 - 171
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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