Cadet's parents take step to keep his memory alive

The parents of West Point cadet Peter Zhu lost their son under tragic circumstances, but they have taken an extraordinary step to keep his memory genetically alive.

Zhu, 21, was found unresponsive by a fellow skier on a slope at the Victor Constant Ski Area on West Point grounds on Feb 23, according to a release from the United States Military Academy.

A ski patrol responded and performed life-saving measures on Zhu before he was taken to a local hospital and later airlifted to Westchester Medical Center in White Plains.

Zhu, whose spine was badly fractured, was pronounced brain dead on Feb 27. Because he was an organ donor, Zhu was kept breathing until Friday, March 1.

It also was on Friday that a New York state Supreme Court judge granted a request by Zhu's China-born parents, Yongmin and Monica Zhu of Concord, California, to retrieve their son's sperm with the hope that they could someday have a grandchild fathered by their only son.

The sperm would have to be extracted before Zhu's organs were removed, his parents wrote to the court. The organ-removal procedure was scheduled to begin at 3 pm. They had filed their court petition at 9:38 am Friday.

At 11:34 am Friday, Justice John P. Colangelo directed the hospital to collect the sperm and send it "to a sperm bank or similar facility of Petitioners' choosing for storage until further Order of this Court regarding disposition of such sperm". The judge also scheduled a court hearing for March 21.

A memorial service was scheduled for Zhu on Tuesday, and a funeral service will be held Thursday at the academy's cemetery.

A member of the Class of 2019, Zhu was president of the Cadet Medical Society. He was to receive a commission as a Medical Corps officer and was to attend medical school at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, according to Army Times.

"Peter was the kindest, most loving and caring young man that you could ever meet," his parents said in the filing. "In addition to retrieving Peter's organs to donate to others in need, we are seeking to retrieve sperm from Peter's body in order to preserve Peter's reproductive genetic material."

The Zhus told the court that they wanted to retrieve their son's sperm for "deeply personal cultural reasons as well".

Peter Zhu was the only male in his generation of the Zhu family.

The Zhus pleaded that if they didn't obtain the genetic material, it would be "impossible to carry on our family's lineage, and our family name will die".

"When Peter was born, his grandfather cried tears of joy that a son was born to carry on our family's name," the Zhus said in the filing. "Peter took this role very seriously, and fully intended to carry on our family's lineage through children of his own."

The first documented post-mortem sperm removal was reported in 1980, and the first baby conceived from such a procedure was born in 1999, according to medical journals.

The sperm-retrieval requests usually come from a surviving spouse.

"However, from time to time, like most hospitals, Westchester Medical Center is presented with complex legal and ethical situations where guidance from the court is appropriate and appreciated," the medical center said in a statement. "Westchester Medical Center is grateful the family sought a court order during such a difficult time."

In July 2017, the widow of slain New York Police Department Detective First Grade Wenjian Liu gave birth to a girl. The baby was born through in vitro fertilization from sperm preserved after the officer's shooting death.

Liu, 32, originally from Guangdong province, and fellow New York City policeman Rafael Ramos, 40, were fatally ambushed by a gunman as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn in December 2014. The shootings stunned the city and captured international attention.

In 2018, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine issued ethical guidelines for fertility centers on posthumous collection of reproductive tissue, saying it's justifiable if previously authorized in writing by the deceased. Otherwise, it said, programs should only consider requests from the surviving spouse or partner.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.