Jump directly to the content

Devastated widow extracts dead husband’s sperm just hours after he took his own life… now she plans to have his babies

A DEVASTATED widow has extracted her dead husband's sperm on the night he took his own life in a bid to have his babies.

Jermimah Moylan lost her husband Sebastian when the 27-year-old took his own life last week but she still intends to have his child.

 Recently widowed Jermimah Moylan, left, plans on using her dead husband Sebastian's, right, sperm to have a baby
Recently widowed Jermimah Moylan, left, plans on using her dead husband Sebastian's, right, sperm to have a babyCredit: GoFundMe
 Jermimah, left, appealed to a court to have sperm removed from her husband's body
Jermimah, left, appealed to a court to have sperm removed from her husband's bodyCredit: GoFundMe
 The couple always wanted to have a family
The couple always wanted to have a familyCredit: GoFundMe

On the night of Sebastian's death on Wednesday August 14, the 27-year-old widow appealed to a court to have sperm removed from her husband's body.

An hour before midnight, the NSW Supreme Court gave her permission to 'harvest' the sperm.

And the following day, a doctor from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital performed the surgery to extract the sperm.

There is just a 24-hour window of time after someone dies before their sperm is able to be extracted and Jermimah has 10 years to use it.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, she said: "It brings me some form of closure and some form of hope for a family with the only man I ever wanted to have one with.

"He would have made the most incredible dad and his future daughter or son will know how amazing he is and will grow up as if he's in the house."

The couple married in 2015 and were planning on trying for a baby in 2020.

Jermimah had visited doctors and a naturopath in preparation.

He would have made the most incredible dad.

Jermimah Moylan

Despite the tragedy, she still intends to have a family.

Although she has won the right to have the sperm removed and stored, she needs further legal permission to use it.

Her brother Drew, who was the best man at the couple's wedding, set up a GoFundMe page to help with the costs of IVF.

He wrote: "Sebastian Moylan always dreamed of starting a family with his wife Jermimah Moylan and live happily ever after in the family home, but on the 14th Sebastian took his own life.

"For reasons associated with mental illness, he will not be here to share a future with his family and friends.

"It was one of his biggest wishes to have a family and within the first 12hrs of his passing my beloved sister Jermimah was in the Supreme Court to have a rare order approved to removed the sperm from her beloved husband to still raise a family with him.

"Jermimah wants to still have a child with her husband and have this child raised in the home they built together."

The money is hoped to go towards Sebastian's funeral, IVF, lawyers, barristers, court costs and paying the mortgage on the family home.

Drew described his brother-in-law as "the kindest and most genuine person" he'd ever met.

Writing over Facebook, he said: "The out pour of sadness of your passing is a tribute to the impact you had on this world.

"I only wish I could see you one last time to so you would truly know the love I have for you and that you will forever be a loving member of our family."

Jermimah said the couple discussed mental health regularly.

"We talked about mental health almost daily as I suffer from anxiety," she said.

"It's something I'm big on making awareness about and he would always have conversations about it. But he never gave any sign of going this far.

"He never really got over the death of his father 18 months ago. We all get stressed over work, money and life but taking that final step means he must have bottled more than we ever thought up."

She advised others: "Recording a simple note with a doctor as to whether they consent to the removal of eggs or sperm after death can make all the difference in providing an opportunity to recreate a joint dream and continue a legacy."


Extracting sperm from a dead partner to have a baby post mortem is extremely rare.

Famously in the 1990s, British woman Diane Blood had to fight in the courts to be allowed to use sperm that had been taken from her late husband while he was in a coma, to conceive her two boys - Liam, now 20, and Joel, 16.

Diane was the first British woman to have children using the sperm of her dead husband.

After fighting a lengthy court case she had to travel to Belgium to have the IVF procedure.

Husband Stephen was in a coma from bacterial meningitis in 1995 when Diane persuaded doctors to extract some of his sperm to freeze.

He died days later, unable to make written authorisation for the use of his sperm, which British law required.

However, Diane fought for the right to take his sperm abroad to use at a fertility clinic in a country with different rules, and won her case in 1998.

In June this year, a British mum living in Australia was given the right to use sperm extracted from her dead husband's body to have a second child.

Jennifer Gaffney, 35, had been planning to have another child with her husband Daniel before he died suddenly after a heart attack last year.




In the UK there have now been a total of ten reported requests to hospital trusts to retrieve sperm from a patient close to death or after death.

Cancer patients also regularly bank their sperm ahead of treatment which can leave them sterile.

The longest successful sperm freeze to date is 28 years, but in the UK it can be only legally stored for ten years at a time. The man can then request a further ten years’ storage so long as he is under 55.

Currently, sperm is frozen with liquid nitrogen and kept in a sperm bank at minus 195°C.

But experts say that in the future new technology could see it freeze-dried like instant coffee and stored at HOME.

It has only been since 2003 that dead fathers whose babies were conceived with frozen sperm have been allowed to be named on birth certificates.

Around five babies conceived from their dead father’s sperm are born in the UK every year.


  • As a general rule, it is only possible to use a sperm donation after the donor has died if there is written consent from the donor
  • When sperm is donated, the man is asked to decide what he would like to happen to it if he dies or becomes mentally incapacitated
  • There are rare exceptions to this rule - when partners have died unexpectedly it is possible for their sperm to be harvested without consent
  • The matter will almost always have to be taken to court
  • The term for conceiving with someone's sperm, egg or embryo after they have died is 'posthumous conception'
The couple married in 2015 and were planning on trying for a baby in 2020Credit: GoFundMe
Sperm donor, 62, whose fathered 66 kids reveals he hid secret from wife

