Parents Of Cancer Victim Win Right To Use Son’s Frozen Semen: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Friday ruled that the parents of a young cancer patient, who had requested that his semen be preserved before his death, can now access the sample.

The court clarified that there is no legal barrier to using the semen for reproduction posthumously, provided the donor's consent is established and no spouse is involved.

Justice Prathiba Singh, referencing the Hindu Succession Act, determined that the parents are entitled to their deceased son's semen as "Class-1 legal heirs."

Preet Inder Singh, a 30-year-old diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in June 2020, had preserved his semen before undergoing chemotherapy, which could affect his fertility, as reported by *The Indian Express*.

The Delhi High Court concluded that reproductive material, such as a semen sample, qualifies as "property" or part of an "estate."

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital was directed to release Preet Inder Singh's frozen semen sample to his parents. Singh passed away on September 1, 2020, and later in December, his parents, Gurvinder Singh and Harbir Kaur, requested the hospital to release the preserved sample.

When they were unable to retrieve the semen, the parents approached the Delhi High Court in 2021. Represented by senior advocate Suruchii Aggarwal and advocate Gurmeet Singh, they expressed their full responsibility, along with their two daughters, for raising any child born via surrogacy using the sample.

The hospital, represented by advocate Anurag Bindal, argued that the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, lacks guidelines for the disposal or use of semen from an unmarried individual.

Justice Prathiba Singh, granting the parents' request, noted that Preet Inder had explicitly consented to the preservation of his semen for future procreation.

"He may have hoped to live after chemotherapy, but nature willed otherwise. From the consent given for semen sample preservation, the deceased son's last wish can be inferred," the judge noted. Since semen samples constitute genetic material and are considered property, the parents, as legal heirs, have the right to the release of the sample.

The bench also acknowledged that grandparents are fully capable of raising grandchildren and integrating them into society. It further noted that the child could be born via a surrogate mother or through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with a consenting woman identified by the petitioners.

Referencing the Hindu Succession Act, the court affirmed that in the absence of a spouse or children, parents have the right to their deceased son's semen, as it constitutes his biological material. The parents, therefore, inherit the legal right to access and use it.