Widow Saves Late Husband’s Sperm Samples From Destruction

Amelia Roblin and Jerome Stuart Pink met in Canada in 2006 while studying at the University of Toronto. Pink was an exchange student from Australia. The couple continued their relationship and made plans to be married and have children. When Pink was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 he had sperm samples frozen prior to beginning chemotherapy treatments. Roblin moved to be with Pink and they were married. After Pink died of cancer in 2012, Roblin contacted the clinic regarding her late husband’s sperm samples and was told they would be destroyed per a form Pink had signed informing him that the samples would be destroyed if he died. Roblin argued that Pink intended for her to get the samples as part of his estate.

In Roblin v The Public Trustee for the Australian Capital Territory & Anor, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory held that the man’s stored sperm was his personal property included in his estate, and as long as storage fees continued to be paid the clinic could not destroy it.

See Elizabeth Byrne, Widow Wins Court Case to Save Dead Husband’s Frozen Sperm From Being Destroyed by Fertility Clinic, ABC, Apr. 29, 2015.