Wife, Mother Battle Over Deceased Soldier's Sperm

Story here.

The widow of a soldier killed in Iraq this week is in a fight against time and her mother-in-law to harvest her husband's sperm before he is embalmed.

Army Sgt. Dayne Darren Dhanoolal was killed on Monday when a roadside bomb tore through the Husky mine-detecting vehicle he was driving in Iraq. The 26-year-old combat engineer was assigned to Fort Benning's 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment and was scheduled to come home just weeks before his death.

On Friday, Kynesha Dhanoolal got a federal court order restraining her husband's mother from embalming the body until she can get his sperm, which she hopes to use to have a child through artificial insemination.

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I remember there was a story like this on here a few months back. It's sad really. I guess people are going to have to start noting their reproductive wishes in their wills. Sheesh...

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Whether the guy wants or doesn't want (or in this case 'wanted' or 'did't' want) children, women will get that sperm into them somehow, come 'hell or high water'. However, in this case, if there is nothing written HE left, then Kynesha should NOT be allowed to take whatever she wants. (Ya, I could make another snide comment, again.)

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Yes, only if you are female!

I guess if he stated he didn't want his organs harvested for transplants after his death that could be overturned by some tyrannical a_hole in a black sheet too?

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Let's flip the genders, shall we? Let's imagine a man's wife died and he wanted to have somebody to go into her body to obtain eggs so he could have more children with his now deceased wife. Does that seem logical? Does that seem sane? The answer to both is a profound NO! So, why is it okay when a woman does it to a man?

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!

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Admittedly, I can see where the wife is coming from. They were a young couple planning to start a family when the husband died. It seems reasonable to me for the wife to still want to have her husband's child after his death.

To address xtrnl's reversal of the roles:

A young couple is ready to conceive when the wife dies. Wouldn't the husband mourn the loss of their future child as well as of his wife?

xtrnl claims that for a husband to have the child after his wife's death doesn't seem logical or sane, but I disagree. It only appears irrational because of the necessary biological complications. The husband can't carry the child; a woman would have to be hired as a surrogate womb. Such women are, needless to say, difficult to find and make a contract with, as well as incredibly expensive to 'hire.'

In the case of a woman with a dead husband, the difficulty and expense is (comparatively) next to nothing--especially since the woman was already expecting to deal with both (albeit not on her own). Therefore, it seems less irrational for a woman to do this than a man.

This isn't to say that I'm disputing Sgt. Dhanoolal's personal rights. It's unfortunate that we don't have in ink his wishes on the subject, but he obviously couldn't foresee this situation. However, if it is commonly known that the couple had wanted children, I think that should at least be acknowledged.

Frankly, I believe this story addresses the issue of a parent's control over an adult child's reproductive rights as well as one's personal rights after death.

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That's a good post.

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I predict that marriage "vows" and attending legal contracts will soon include what can be done with a dead husband's sperm.

And her eggs, should she die first.

See what the feminists have created?

Gender Warfare.

Love is over. Forget about romance.

It's all just paying lawyers now.

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I do feel bad for the woman, but I think her wanting another child is probably just due to the grief she's experiencing. She's in a vulnerable place right now, and she's making life-altering decisions out of the extreme negative emotion she's feeling. I don't think it's fair to bring a child into this world only to later tell them that their father is dead, and never was alive at any point in their life. I think the idea of having another child with your dead spouse is impractical, and well, creepy.

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!

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