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The inability to access donor sperm and the suffering this causes, we argue, justifies allowing access to sperm donated after death. Moreover, it is known that individuals and couples have desires for certain sperm donor characteristics which may not be fulfilled when numbers of sperm donors are low. Enacting these preferences contributes significantly to the well-being of intended parents, so we argue that this provides a<jats:italic>pro tanto<\/jats:italic>reason for respecting them. Finally, we explore the benefits and possible disadvantages of such a system for the various parties affected.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medethics-2019-105637","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,21]],"date-time":"2020-01-21T04:55:13Z","timestamp":1579582513000},"page":"489-492","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["The ethical case for non-directed postmortem sperm donation"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"46","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6022-2260","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nathan","family":"Hodson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joshua","family":"Parker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"2024111107401109000_46.7.489.1","unstructured":"Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority . 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