High Court Lets Stand Ruling Allowing Man to Will Sperm

The California Supreme Court on Thursday let stand a lower court ruling that gives a deceased Malibu man the right to bequeath his frozen sperm.

The court decided unanimously not to review a June decision by a an appeals court in Los Angeles that found the late William E. Kane had a property interest in his frozen sperm and could will it to his girlfriend.

The appeals court had overturned a ruling by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, who had ordered that the sperm be destroyed but stayed his order pending an appeal.

Kane, who committed suicide in 1991, bequeathed vials of his sperm to his girlfriend, Deborah E. Hecht, to use “should she so desire . . . to become impregnated.”

But Kane’s two adult children contested his lover’s claim to the sperm, arguing that their father changed his will shortly before his suicide under pressure from Hecht.

The children said that allowing Hecht to impregnate herself would impose emotional, psychological and financial stress on them. The future offspring also could try to claim some of Kane’s estate, worth an estimated $1 million.

Barbara Bailey, an attorney for Kane’s son, William Everett Kane Jr., said no decision has been made on whether to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Under current law, she said, a child must be in gestation at the time of a parent’s death to claim a portion of the estate.

She said the case also poses questions about the welfare of the unborn child, who might find it painful knowing that “your father committed suicide before you were born--way before you were born.”

Hecht’s attorney, Marvin L. Rudnick, said she will return to probate court to seek possession of the sperm, now in a sperm bank.