Harvest of a dead man's sperm authorized by Texas judge

On Sunday (April 5, 2009), Nikolas Evans died.  Travis County Texas (Austin) Probate Judge Guy Herman ruled on Monday (April 6, 2009) that Nikolas' mother (Marissa Evans) could harvest his sperm.  Nikolas had indicated that he wanted to have three sons and had even picked out their names (Hunter, Tod, and Van).

The court order requires the medical examiner to keep Nikolas' body warm enough to keep the sperm viable. Marissa is now seeking a urologist or other medical professional who would be willing to withdraw the sperm from Nikolas' corpse.

This case is especially interesting because the sperm request is from the decedent's mother, not a wife or girlfriend as is usually the case.  I wonder how Marissa intends to find a surrogate mother or whether she intends to serve as the surrogate herself and give birth to her own grandchildren.

See Texas judge allows collection of dead son's sperm, Yahoo! News, April 8, 2009.

Special thanks to Spencer Nelson (J.D. Candidate, Texas Tech University School of Law) and Jacquelyn Wilson (Associate, Law Office of Christopher C. Merritt, Austin, Texas) for bringing this situation to my attention.