KOCHI: Casting a shadow on the efforts of an aged couple, who have been fighting a legal battle to get their deceased son’s semen and have a grandchild through a surrogate mother, the hospital that preserves the semen has refused to hand it over to them.It was the ‘Express’ that first reported about the couple’s legal battle on December 30, 2011. Ratheesh, 28, son of Ravikumar and Karthyani of Angamaly, had died of pneumonia in January 2011. Ratheesh was referred to the Centre for Infertility Management and Assisted Reproduction (CIMAR), Kochi, for semen preservation before the treatment for gem cell tumour was started. The semen has been preserved at CIMAR, Kochi.In a counter-affidavit, CIMAR director Dr Parasuram Gopinath submitted before the Ernakulam Permanent Lok Adalat that there was no provision to hand over the preserved semen to anyone, including the legal heirs or the parents of the donor.“It will not be possible to hand it over without any order from the court or a competent authority,” Gopinath said.With the hospital taking such a decision, the couple have to wait for some more time till the Adalat’s final order. According to the hospital, at the time of preserving the semen, Ratheesh had given a written consent stating that the semen was to be stored in the hospital for one year and could be destroyed on the expiry of the said period. But the hospital has been preserving it since August 2010, and it was not destroyed.The hospital authorities have expressed concern that the preserved sperm, if used in future for pregnancy, may not be successful.“The parents may be the legal heirs of Ratheesh, but the question is whether the preserved semen comes within the definition of the ‘estate of the deceased’ to which his legal heirs are entitled to succeed by virtue of principles of intestate succession,” the hospital said.But the hospital authorities agreed that the semen contains sperms, which can be used for artificial insemination or in surrogacy to develop an embryo which in turn can grow into a live human being.The couple, in their late 50s, now hope to get a child through assisted reproductive technology by using the preserved semen.Counsel for the couple Aniyan P Vakkom submitted that “their only demand is that the semen stored in the hospital be released and they are ready to obey whatever condition imposed by the Lok Adalat.”“I think the hospital is not against the wishes of the couple, but it requires a legal support. We hope that justice will be done to us as the parents do not have any other children and are too old to conceive and they have been planning to have a child through assisted reproductive technology,” said Aniyan.
Comments
0 comment