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Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (archive picture): "Remarkable decision" in Hamburg
Photo: Rüdiger Wölk / IMAGO
A Hamburg clinic has to hand over the sperm of a deceased man.
That was decided by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court.
The sperm donor and his partner had signed a contract with a fertility clinic in Madrid while the man was alive.
Accordingly, the woman's egg cells should be fertilized with the sperm, said a court spokesman.
The Hamburg clinic where the frozen germ cells were located had refused to hand them over, referring to the Embryo Protection Act.
This prohibits the fertilization of an egg cell with the semen of a deceased person.
The clinic feared complicity, the woman's lawyer said.
However, the higher regional court found that the man had terminated the storage contract with the Hamburg clinic before his death and consented to the planned artificial insemination.
By terminating the storage contract for the purpose of transferring the goods to Spain, he made it clear that he wanted to enable post-mortem artificial insemination for his partner, the court argued, according to the "LTO".
According to the spokesman, the judges found that the German ban served the donor's right to self-determination.
This right and the well-being of the child who has not yet been conceived would not be impaired in this case.
On November 11, the court issued a temporary injunction in an urgent procedure (file number: 6 W 28/11).
In the first instance before the regional court, the woman was unsuccessful in her lawsuit.
"A relatively big leap forward"
According to the woman's lawyer, the man suffered from cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy.
He had the sperm sample frozen so that he could become a father after the treatment.
However, the irradiation was not successful.
That is why he terminated the contract with the Hamburg clinic a few days before his death.
His partner had appealed to the court in an emergency because Spain also only allows artificial insemination up to a year after the donor's death.
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The court decision is final, said lawyer Oliver Tolmein.
“The semen is no longer in Germany.
The facts have been created. ”The specialist lawyer for medical issues spoke of a“ remarkable decision ”.
In a similar case a few years ago, a Munich court refused to hand over semen after the donor's death.
"That is a relatively big leap forward," said Tolmein of the decision of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court.
He pleaded for a reform of the Embryo Protection Act.
bbr / dpa
