LOS ANGELES : Court Hears Appeal on Fate of Suicide’s Frozen Sperm

The 2nd District Court of Appeal has taken under submission a request to overturn a court order to destroy a suicide victim’s frozen sperm, which his former girlfriend claims was promised to her.

A trial should be held to determine who has rights to the sperm, attorney Marvin Rudnick told the state appellate court this week. Deborah Hecht wants to carry the baby of the late William Everett Kane, who gave instructions before his 1991 death that she receive sperm he deposited in a sperm bank if she wanted it, Rudnick said. Hecht has been battling Kane’s estate and his adult children, William Jr. and Katherine, for control of 15 vials of sperm at California Cryobank Inc.

The children “have taken this onerous position that they have some kind of private attorney general power to stop this half-sibling from being born,” Rudnick argued. Estate attorney Gary Ruttenberg argued that Kane’s contract with the sperm bank ended when Kane died and that the sperm should be destroyed. The order to destroy was issued by Superior Court Judge Edward Ross.