American widow gives dead husband's sperm to girlfriend

Melbourne, Oct 19 (ANI): A grieving widow has apparently named her late hubby's mistress to be the surrogate mother of his child after she won a court order to preserve her husband's sperm, according to sources.

George Kamau, 37, killed himself on Monday in the Norwalk, Connecticut, home of Etaghua Asefa, 35, who identified herself to police as the dead man's girlfriend.

In court papers filed in Manhattan, New York, Kamau's wife, Victoria Chege, named Asefa as the "family friend and appointed surrogate" mother who would receive sperm harvested from her late husband's corpse, reports the New York Post.

Although Justice Shirley Warner Kornreich almost immediately signed off on Chege's sperm-preservation request, the grieving widow may have gone to court too late.

Fertility experts say sperm must be taken from a corpse within 36 hours of death for it to be viable. Kamau was dead for at least 60 hours before Kornreich signed the order.

The Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey declined to carry out the procedure without court approval.

Kamau left a suicide note, but its contents have not been revealed. Police do not suspect anything criminal, the sources said.

Troy Griffith, Chege's lawyer, declined yesterday to discuss the case.

"It's a very sensitive time for my client," the Daily Telegraph quoted Griffith as saying. (ANI)