Heartbroken Mother Uses Dead Son’s Preserved Semen To Welcome Twins, ‘Reincarnate’ Child She Lost To Cancer

A heartbroken mother used her dead son’s sperm to “reincarnate” the child she lost to brain cancer. According to Cafe Mom on Friday, a nearly 50-year-old grieving mother from India decided to take advantage of her son’s preserved semen in order to “get her boy back.” Just over a week ago, the grieving Indian mom became the proud “grandmother” to newborn twins created from her deceased son’s saved semen.

Rajashree Patil, 49, made the news on Monday, February 12, after welcoming newborn twins — one boy and one girl. The birth of the twins drew attention worldwide because Patil actually used her dead son’s semen, along with a donated egg and a willing surrogate, in order to get her son back. According to the Daily Mail on Thursday, Patil plans to raise the twins as her own children and wants to avoid being called grandma.

Patil is a teacher who currently resides in Pune, Western India, with her other grown daughter, Prisha, who is said to be supportive of her mother’s plan to use her late brother’s sperm to give her siblings. IVF (in vitro fertilization) doctors in India are also happy to have helped Rajashree Patil have her son back “in the form of these healthy twin babies.” Supriya Puranik, head of IVF at Sahyadri Hospital in India, recalls that Patil was grief-stricken when her son succumbed to brain cancer in 2016.

After his death, the mother, having a desire to get back her son, contacted the semen bank in Germany where Prathamesh Patil’s semen was cryo-preserved https://t.co/1lBcs6SWWW

— The Hindu (@the_hindu) February 15, 2018

Prathamesh, Rajashree Patil’s adult son, died from brain cancer three years after undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. Prathamesh’s death was a shock to Patil because his cancer treatment seemed to have been successful, but the brain cancer returned in 2016. After Prathamesh completed his master’s degree in Germany in 2013 as an engineering student, he reportedly returned to India for cancer treatment, only to pass away in Septemeber of 2016 after learning it had returned in February of 2016.

An article on the PuneMirror out of India calls the birth of the twins using Prathamesh’s saved sperm an “unusual case” for Rajashree Patil, who had the determination to “reincarnate” her dead son. Even though Rajashree wanted to carry and give birth to the “soul” of her late son, she was told by doctors that she would have to find an unrelated anonymous egg donor and a surrogate mother, especially since she was already menopausal.

“A married relative [35-years-old] offered to be the surrogate mother and she handed over the twins to me the minute they were born.”

The Daily Mail shared a photo of the “unusual family” of four and notes that doctors actually stored samples of Prathamesh’s semen before he initially started cancer treatment in 2013. Prathamesh, before his death, was said to have put his heartbroken mother, along with his sister, in charge of the preserved semen. Patil shared that she did face criticism over the decision to “reincarnate” her dead son from his saved sperm and that it was difficult to gain custody of the semen for artificial insemination.

https://www.facebook.com/indianexpress/posts/10156289136253826

“Getting the semen into our custody was not easy and we faced a lot of hurdles. Money and time were serious issues but now I will take the responsibility of these infants.”

Rajashree Patil reportedly started to consider using her dead son’s sperm to bring her son back less than a year after his untimely death — in May of last year, according to the Daily Mail.

Critics of Patil’s decision to use IVF treatment and preserved semen to “reincarnate” her dead son say it’s “wrong on all levels” but can understand and “imagine her pain” from losing her son.

“I am going to name the baby boy Prathamesh, after my departed son, and the baby girl Prisha, after my daughter,” said Patil.