Canada rethinks posthumous use of embryos, eggs, and sperm

Who should have access to a dead person's gametes? Only a spouse? Anyone identified in a consent form by name? People buying from banks where owners have lost track of donors? Canada mulls it all over.

What should happen to embryos, eggs and sperm after a person dies? Right now, under Canadian law, only a spouse or common-law partner can use it, and even then only if the person whose body it came from consented in writing before their death.

But there's a lot of frozen reproductive material out there, with more on its way, and it can last a long time — decades. It's emotionally hard to throw out. And there's not just the material people store for their own use, there's also the material that donors have provided to banks for use by other people. Years later, it can be hard for banks to know for certain if those donors are still alive.

So the Canadian government is asking: should we rethink some of this? Should we open it up a bit?

Health Canada is proposing to broaden consent. They wonder whether a person should be able to leave their sperm to someone other than a spouse or common-law partner. They also wonder, when donors consent to donate through banks, whether that consent should be valid even after they die.

Health Canada has asked for feedback from "targeted" stakeholders. I was not one of them, but below, for what it's worth, are my thoughts on the subject.