ABA Family Legal Guide

Health-Care Law

Specific Issues in Health Care

Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Can children be "conceived" after a parent dies?

Through the use of assisted reproductive technology, children can be born months—even years—after one or both of the parents die. If a couple freezes its embryos, the wife can have the embryos transferred after her husband's death. If both parents die, the person who "inherits" the embryos could have them transferred to a carrier, thus creating a child whose parents are deceased.