In 1978, Dr. Cappy Rothman performed the world's first postmortem gamete retrieval. Since this time, postmortem gamete requests and retrievals have been increasing. Due to the lack of both regulation and professional guidance, hospitals have begun implementing their own Postmortem Gamete Retrieval (PMGR) and Persistent Vegetative State Gamete Retrieval (PVSGR) policies.;This thesis addresses the difficult ethical, legal, social policy, and practical concerns arising from PMGR and PVSGR. In the first chapter, PMGR and PVSGR are introduced. In the second, third, and fourth chapters the ethical, legal, social, and practical concerns are identified. This thesis argues that the basic right to reproduce may extend to procreating after death or in PVS. The key ethical consideration is the reproductive autonomy of the deceased or PVS patient and the type of consent needed to protect the patient's autonomy. This autonomy can only be sufficiently protected by requiring the patient's pre-mortem or pre-PVS written explicit consent for PMGR and PVSGR. Therefore, hospital PMGR and PVSGR policies should not honor surrogate decision maker's gamete retrieval requests unless they have the patient's explicit written consent. In the fifth chapter, this thesis compares the similarities and differences between various hospital PMGR and PVSGR policies and approaches. The chapter concludes with an analysis of key concerns that hospital PMGR and PVSGR policies must address. This thesis in the sixth chapter presents alternative ways that PMGR and PVSGR can be regulated and identifies potential problems these alternatives may cause.
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