A LEADING bioethicist has backed a Brisbane Supreme Court decision on January 6 to deny a Queensland woman access to her dead fiance’s sperm in order to have his child.
Queensland Bioethics Centre director Ray Campbell said the court’s decision was in ‘the best interests of the child’.
Simone Baker, 29, of Mackay, had applied to the Supreme Court to take sperm from the body of her fiance, Andrew Clough, who died on New Year’s Eve when he fell from a waterfall in north Queensland.
Justice John Muir rejected the application, saying there was ‘no jurisdiction to authorise interference with the body of a dead person’.
Mr Campbell said the desires of Ms Baker and the parents of Mr Clough were understandable.
‘This couple were planning to marry and have children, and those plans were brought to a tragic end due to Andrew Clough’s sudden death.
‘Our sympathy goes to Ms Baker, her family and the Clough family. They are grieving. But a time of grief is not a good time to be making life-altering decisions.’
Mr Campbell questioned media reports that the court decision had compounded the tragedy.
The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) in article 3 states: ‘In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.’
Following the court ruling, Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford said that under the Criminal Code it was an offence to interfere with the body of a dead person without lawful justification.
