Woman has second baby using dead husband's sperm

Diane Blood, the woman who won the legal right to have a baby using her dead husband's sperm, gave birth to their second son yesterday.

Joel Michael was born by Caesarean section at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, weighing 8lb. Mrs Blood's father, Mike McMahon, said: "She is overjoyed. It's what she wanted."

Mrs Blood, 36, became pregnant using frozen sperm taken from Stephen Blood in the days before he died of meningitis in March 1995.

Her husband was on a life-support machine at the time, so it was impossible to obtain written permission required by law to use his sperm, and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority refused to sanction fertility treatment after his death. After a long legal battle, Mrs Blood won the right to travel to Belgium for procedures used to help her become pregnant.

Her first son, Liam, was born in December 1998, more than three years after the death of his father, a childhood lover of Mrs Blood. They had been married for four years.

Announcing her second pregnancy in February, Mrs Blood said: "I know [Stephen] would have been delighted that Liam is to be raised with a full brother or sister, and that he is to be a father again."

Shortly after Joel's birth, Liam was taken to see his brother by Mr Blood's parents, Gill and Brian, and Mr McMahon. "He was fascinated by his baby brother," Mr McMahon said. "It was a wonderful moment for all of us."

Mrs Blood, of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, intends to register her son's birth, even though she objects to the fact that by law the father's name will not be allowed on the birth certificate. "It just gets entered as a line, as if the father was unknown, which is of course untrue and hurtful," Mr McMahon said yesterday.