Pregnancy with Frozen Sperm of Husband Died 2 Years Ago

A Japanese woman of 30s is focused because that she was born a child by using frozen sperm of her dead husband, and sued for acknowledge of real child. It is the first case in Japan. At first, the authority didn’t admit with an authoritative interpretation “As her husband died the marriage relationship ceased. So the relationship of real child can’t be approved.”

According to the report of Sankei papers at 25th of June, the husband deposited a healthy sperm in a hospital before taking anticancer treatments and died in 1999. With the permission of parents in law, the wife became pregnant by using the frozen sperm in 2000 and borne a healthy boy in May of last year.

She submitted the birth certificate to register him as their son to the city hall. However, the city hall declined the registration with the reason “According to the civil laws, the marriage relationship ceased 300 days ago because of her husband death. So the child can not be recognized as the dead man’s son.” Therefore, the space of the child’s father is still blank in the birth certificate. She also sued to family court, but declined with the same reason.

Finally, she sued to the local court last month to for the child to be acknowledged having father. She also demands for DNA test to proof the father and son relationship.

In the trend of the generalization of frozen technology, this kind of matters will happen further in the future. Sankei paper commented, “We should review the contradiction of existing law that doesn’t admit the possibility of pregnancy even if a husband is dead.”

ksshim@donga.com