Jeffrey Epstein Banked Sperm Before His Death

Jeffrey Epstein is gone, but the fate of his frozen sperm is an open question. Newly released Justice Department records show that the financier had been storing sperm with California Cryobank for years and signed a 2016 contract stating that, if he died, control of the samples would pass to his estate or another legal representative—not the sperm bank. The arrangement wasn't made public until the files emerged this year, reports the New York Times. It's unclear whether the sperm still exists or where it might be. CooperCompanies, which now owns California Cryobank, says it currently holds no Epstein samples and won't say more; his estate hasn't commented.

Legal experts say any fight over the sperm would likely be governed by US Virgin Islands law, where Epstein's estate is based. Naomi Cahn, a University of Virginia law professor, says that trustees "have a great deal of discretion so long as they exercise that discretion in good faith." Bioethicists, meanwhile, say the case exposes a thorny question: Should fertility clinics accept or use genetic material from convicted sex offenders? Kimberly Mutcherson, a bioethics professor at Rutgers Law School, warns against moral gatekeeping, but notes that many would question "whether this is a set of circumstances where people would find the use of this person's sperm to be particularly odious."

The Times notes that Epstein "had dreamed of widely spreading his DNA by impregnating women at his New Mexico ranch." Citing emails contained in the March release of files, the Telegraph notes that Epstein appeared obsessed with eugenics. "I want to start cloning things, me," he wrote in an email. "And with certain people, Prince Andrew got upset because he was all, 'If it had a conscience, could you kill it for spare parts.' And I said, 'I'll make it without a head, would that make you feel better?'"