NEW YORK, Aug. 2 A New York judge ruled two children created using frozen sperm after their father's death are entitled to a cut of the family fortune.
Renee Roth, in New York Surrogate Court, ruled that the grandchildren of a man identified in court as Martin B. are eligible to receive cash from his trust funds, despite the non-existence of in vitro fertilization when the trusts were created in 1969, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The children, identified as James Mitchell, 2, and Warren, 11 months, had perplexed trustees who were unsure whether to make payments to children because their father, James, died in 2001 -- years before either boy was conceived. The trustees
However, Roth wrote that the children are the biological sons of their father and therefore are entitled to the rights that accompany that relation.
"The human desire to have children, albeit by biotechnology, deserves respect, as do the rights of the children born as a result of such scientific advances," Roth wrote.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
