Delhi High Court allows kin to retrieve sperm of man who died by suicide

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has permitted retrieval and preservation of sperms of a man who died by suicide recently.

Justice Sachin Datta passed the direction on a plea filed by the kin of the man and sought the preservation of his semen through postmortem sperm retrieval (PMSR) for potential future use in assisted reproductive therapy.

"At the request of learned counsel for the petitioner, the respondent number 2 hospital is directed to endeavour to arrange for the PMSR procedure to be performed through any other hospital which is equipped to do so, at the risk and cost of the petitioners. It is directed accordingly," said the court on January 24.

The retrieved sperm, said Justice Datta, should be preserved by the hospital where the procedure would be performed.

The court issued notice to the Centre and the Delhi government on the petition and clarified the direction was passed in view of the urgency of the matter as the retrieval would be efficacious only if it was performed expeditiously.

The retrieval would be subject to further orders in the matter, it added.

The petitioner said according to a high court decision on posthumous reproduction, "semen sample" constituted property under Indian law and therefore was part of the estate of a person who died.

The man in the present case died by suicide on January 22.

The matter would be heard next on July 8.