Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & Ors [2018] EWCOP 18

The Applicant was seeking  ​a declaration that, notwithstanding her husband's incapacity and his inability to consent, it was lawful and in his best interests for his sperm to be retrieved and stored prior to his death. The declaration was granted.

The Applicant's husband was involved in a road accident which left him with a catastrophic brain injury. Prior to the accident the couple had started to embark on IVF treatment to provide a brother or sister for their son. The court had to decide whether it was lawful to collect and store the husband's sperm before he died so that the Applicant could go ahead with the treatment.

The court allowed the application. The decisions the court took on the husband's behalf were in his best interests even though his death was imminent. The order declared that it was lawful for a doctor to retrieve his gametes and lawful for those gametes to be stored both before and after his death on the signing of the relevant consents storage and use and that it was lawful for his gametes and any embryos formed from his gametes to be used after his death.

Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii