Woman To Be Impregnated By Comatose Husband

The procedure enraged the Vatican, which claims both parents should consent for procreation, which was not the case here.

Italian gynaecologist decided on a non-conventional insemination process and encountered severe criticism from the Vatican. Severino Antinori, the gynaecologist in question, will inseminate a woman with the sperm of her husband, who is currently in a coma, Italian media report.

Doctor Antinori, famous to the Italian public for his controversial attempts of enabling women in menopause to conceive, and was named “grandmothers` gynaecologist”. Still, this latest case drew the Vatican`s attention.

- I decided to act because. . . there’s a woman who wants to become a mother to overcome the immense sadness brought about by the brain cancer that put her husband in a coma - the grandmothers` gynaecologist told the Corriere della Sera daily.

Semen will wait a month before impregnation

This will be the first time in Italy that the semen of a comatose man is used, while doctor Antinori, who retracted the semen on Tuesday, will perform the procedure in a month`s time.

The saddened potential mother is 32 years old, while her husband is 35, according to the media. They decided to have children not long before the husband fell ill with brain cancer.

A court provision protects doctor Antinori, which allows him to retract semen and perform artificial insemination. However, the Catholic church assessed the procedure as “illegal”.

The Vatican`s main argument is that that both parents should consent for procreation, which was not the case here, as the husband is only seen as a donor.