Legal battle to use dead son's sperm

A 60-year old couple are to mount a legal battle for the right to have a grandchild using the sperm of their dead son. Natasha and Barry Smith from Worcestershire lost their only son, Lance, last November when he was killed in a road accident at the age of 36. They are now determined to take the sperm that was collected within 24 hours of the accident and pay an egg donor and surrogate mother to have the child. Six months prior to the accident, Lance Smith had written two documents saying that, in the event of his death, he wished 'a quantity of sperm' to be taken so that his unnamed fiancée could have his child. Problems arose when Mr smith's girlfriend of 10 years decided that she did not want treatment to have a child in this way.

The Smiths' plans have been blocked by the Priory Hospital in Birmingham which took the specimen. 'Our legal advice is that we shouldn't release [the sperm] because, for a number of reasons, this does not comply with the law,' said a spokesman for BMI Healthcare which runs the hospital. The Priory has asked the couple to apply to the high court for a declaration that a form outlining their son's consent is legally valid.