A British widow had her dead husband's sons abroad, then fought until Parliament let his name go on their birth certificates

Stephen Blood fell into a coma with bacterial meningitis in early 1995^†. At his wife Diane's request, doctors took sperm from him before he died^†. The couple had been trying for a child. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority refused to let her use it because Stephen had not given written consent to storage. In 1997 the Court of Appeal ruled that storage without written consent was unlawful in the UK, but that under European law she had a right to be treated in another member state. She was treated in Belgium^†. She had two sons, Liam in 1998 and Joel in 2002^†. Under section 28(6) of the 1990 Act, a man whose sperm was used after his death could not be recorded as the father, so both birth certificates left the father blank. In March 2003 the High Court declared that rule incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Parliament passed the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Deceased Fathers) Act 2003, which received Royal Assent on 18 September 2003. It let mothers register a dead husband or partner as father, and applied back to treatment from 1 August 1991, if the mother elected within six months. Blood registered her sons on 1 December 2003, when the Act came into force^†. The Act gives the father's name only; it does not make the child his heir.