Soldier’s Widow Wants Husband’s Sperm
Associated Press
Published: April 5, 2008
Updated: December 11, 2008
Published: April 5, 2008
Updated: December 11, 2008
A judge gave the widow of a soldier killed in Iraq hope for a child by allowing her husband's sperm to be extracted and preserved. But medical experts question whether artificial insemination would work because the samples were taken four days after the man died.
Before he died March 31st of wounds suffered when an explosive detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad, Army Sgt. Dayne Darren Dhanoolal had talked often with his wife of 13 months about having children, according to court papers filed by the wife's lawyer.
Dhanoolal (pronounced Dan-oo-lahl) had signed a military form designating his mother, Monica Brown, as the person to handle disposition of his remains if he died while serving. After his death, however, a probate judge appointed his wife, Kynesha, as temporary administrator of his estate. The wife maintains that gives her control of her husband's remains. He did not have a will.
A federal judge in Columbus granted a request Friday by the widow for a temporary restraining order preventing the military from embalming the soldier's body until after samples of his sperm were extracted from his body.
The samples were taken later that day and are in the custody of a medical representative for the widow.
But Dr. Andrew McCullough, a fertility expert and associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine, says the sperm is not viable. In order to retrieve viable sperm for cryopreservation, the man's death should have been sudden and permitting sperm retrieval in less than 24 hours from the time of death, according to the Web site for the Department of Urology at Cornell University's Medical College.
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