Nabokov wrote, “Eccentricity is greatest grief’s greatest
remedy.” This is certainly the case for a Bronx woman whose 31-year-old fiancé
died unexpectedly from a heart attack last week. In the wake of her partner’s
death, Gisela Marrero found comfort in the possibility that she could harvest
his sperm. Marrero and Johnny Quintana had been together for 13 years and already
have a two-year-old. According to Marrero, they were planning to have another
child.
Marrero’s fight to harvest her lover’s sperm was a race
against the clock, as sperm remain fresh for only 36 hours after death and
Marrero was required to have a court order okaying the procedure, since she and
Quintana were not married. The judge approved of the post mortem sperm
extraction with only four hours to spare, so sperm bank employees rushed to the
medical center where Quintana’s body was held.
In the midst of the indescribable pain that Marrero must be
in, it makes sense that she would jump at the opportunity to keep the man she
loved in her life, in any way possible. But, as unimaginable as it surely seems to her now, Marrero
could eventually fall in love with someone who would love to be the father to
her second child, making life much easier for this unborn child. I’m certainly
not against artificial insemination for single women, but bringing a baby into
the world so that the memory of his father can live on is, in my opinion, too
much burden to place on a child.
Marrero claims that having another child was Quintana's wish and is the "last thing I can do for him." But having a child while alive and becoming a father after death are two entirely separate things. There's no way to know what Quintana, who was not expecting to die so young, would have wanted in this situation.
Do you think that the judge was right to approve of Marrero's desire to increase her family, despite her lover's death?
Photo: Daily News
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Mom Gets OK to Collect Dead Son's Sperm
