Case of Cork woman refused access to her dead husband's sperm raised in Seanad

Macroom woman Melanie Dineen has been informed she cannot proceed with IVF using her late husband's sperm. Picture Dan Linehan

“Highly sensitive and complex factors” would need to be fully resolved before a decision could be made on whether the State should fund the posthumous use of spouse’s eggs or sperm in assisted human reproduction, according to a junior minister.

Minister of state Marian Harkin was responding in the Seanad to a question posed in the case of Macroom woman Melanie Dineen, whose late husband Dylan Fleming had given written consent for her to use his frozen sperm to conceive their child after his death.