Creating Life after a Death

Posthumous reproduction is becoming more common, with the increased number of soldiers being deployed and unfortunately, dying overseas. This type of reproduction refers to the implantation of a soldier’s stored sperm into a woman after he has died. Of course, this issue does not only pertain to soldiers, but to any man who is dying or already deceased due to a given circumstance. The pressing issue is: What rules should we implement regarding the impregnation of women with sperm that came from a man who is already deceased?
A soldier or a dying man can choose to store his sperm for his wife or girlfriend’s use in the event that he passes away. So, legally and morally, there seems to be nothing wrong with this scenario. The wife or girlfriend may decide to use this sperm to create a child in an effort to recreate the memory of the deceased husband or boyfriend. So, physically and figuratively, this newborn child will be a lasting combination of the mother and the father. In this way, the child’s existence serves as a sort of comfort for the grieving mother.
But, there have been cases where a deceased man’s sperm, at the request of wives or family members, has been taken from men who have not given their consent to the procedure. The issue here involves informed consent of the dying man, and whether laws should require a man to give this consent before he reaches a debilitated state. Sperm has even been taken from already deceased men who have unexpectedly died from heart attacks or strokes, because their wives or girlfriends want to become impregnated with their child.
Laws governing the use of sperm of the deceased and informed consent involving participation in saving sperm for later use need to catch up to this new, increasingly used procedure. We need to either define the decision to extract sperm to be a personal decision that belongs to the man, or a decision of the married couple, or even non-married couple. Furthermore, does the family play a part in this decision? The question is: where do we draw the line when determining who makes the ultimate decision to create a child that is the product of a living mother and a deceased father?

http://www.bioethics.net/articles.php?viewCat=2&articleId=196