Bay Area parents of dead West Point cadet retrieve his sperm

The parents of a West Point cadet fatally injured in a skiing accident have received a judge’s permission to retrieve his sperm for possible artificial insemination.

U.S. Military Academy Cadet Peter Zhu was declared brain dead Wednesday, four days after a skiing accident at West Point. His parents on Friday asked a state court judge for permission to retrieve his sperm before the 21-year-old’s organs were removed for donation that day.

The parents said in a court filing their son planned to have children, and that they were “desperate to have a small piece of Peter that might live on.”

The judge on Friday granted permission to retrieve the sperm, ordering it stored pending a court hearing March 21.

Zhu was from Concord, California. He planned to attend medical school.