2003 JAPAN LAW: TEST TUBE BABIES
Keywords: Family Law, Civil Code, Test Tube Babies
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman
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A Japanese woman has had a child utilizing the frozen sperm of her husband who had died earlier. The man died of cancer in 1999 and the woman got herself impregnated with his frozen sperm in 2001 with the child born in 2002. In a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Japan, the mother filed birth registration papers claiming the couple as the parents of the child. This was rejected as the Civil Code provided that children born more than 300 days after the end of the husband and wife relationship could not be registered as children of the marriage. Then she went back to court, submitting the registration again, but leaving the space for the father blank, but seeking the court’s recognition of the paternal relationship. The Matsuyama District Court rejected the case. The court noted that there was no evidence that the father had consented to such usage of his sperm. Of course one has to wonder why he had his sperm frozen if he did not want it to be used later.