Kochi:
Bringing some cheer into their lives, a Lok Adalat here has permitted the middle-aged parents of a28-year-old man, who died in the prime of his youth, to retrieve his semen preserved at a private hospital andenable the family to have a surrogate grandchild.
The couple, Ravikumar (59) and Karthiyani (58), who are from a very poor background, had waged a legal battle to gettheir son's semen and have a surrogate grand child through Assisted Reproductive Technology.
The sperm has been preserved at the Centre for Infertility Management and Assisted Reproduction hospital at Cheranalloor.
In a ruling, judge of the permanent Lok Adalat, D Pappachan, allowed the couple to collect the semen but on certain conditions.
They have been asked to jointly sign and issue a receipt to the hospital stating that they had received the semen.
The hospital would not be responsible or liable for any complication--medically or legally arising out of the use ofthe sample, the adalat held, the couple's counsel Aniyan P Vakkom said.
Rateesh, who was studying for Sound engineering in an institute at Chennai, was diagnosed with tumour in his lefttesticle last year and was admitted to the Amrita hospital and his sperm preserved on medical advice. Rateesh died on January5 this year of pneumonia.
Though the couple were advised adoption, they were not keen, their counsel said.
Having a child using their son's sperm was the only option agreeable to them, Aniyan said.
When the hospital rejected their plea to handover the preserved semen, the parents had no other option but toapproach the Lok Adalat for faster disposal of their appeal.