Virginia teen dies before parents can harvest sperm

The Virginia teenager who had been in critical condition since a car accident in October died Thursday, ending his parents’ legal battle to collect his sperm so they could have grandchildren in the future.The Roanoke Times reported that the parents of Rufus Arthur McGill, 19, will be unable to harvest the sperm because of timing. It would reportedly take days to get to obtain a court order and there’s a 36-hour window to collect the sperm.

McGill was on life support at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.The parents, Jerri and Rufus McGill can make the decision to end life support, but they could not legally collect their son's sperm. He's an adult, and they were no longer considered his legal guardians. Rufus McGill II has one full brother, who lives with his father in North Carolina, and two half-siblings.


It was an issue that placed the McGills at a crossroads, where health and family law intersect with the ethical implications of starting new life without a person's expressed consent. And while post-mortem collection of semen isn't unheard of, the permutations of what happens to the child after gestation does raise red flags, ethicists said at the time.McGill has been listed in critical condition since Oct. 14, when he crashed his mother's 2005 Cadillac near Boones Mill in Franklin County. The wreck involved six people and killed Hannah M. Long, a 15-year-old Liberty High School student. Rufus McGill II was airlifted to the hospital.