Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019, but his genetic material may live on.<\/p>\n
Emails and records in the Epstein files released by the Justice Department indicate that Mr. Epstein had been banking his sperm for at least several years before his death, and that he did not want the cryobank to discard it if he died.<\/p>\n
Mr. Epstein deposited his sperm with California Cryobank sometime before October 2012, and he signed <\/strong>a new contract in 2016. The files contain an email from 2012 notifying him of an upcoming renewal payment for his storage with California Cryobank, as well as the 2016 contract with his signature.<\/p>\n The contract, dated May 9, 2016, laid out the terms of Mr. Epstein\u2019s sperm storage. (The sperm remained in his ownership; this is different from sperm donation.) The contract specified that, if he died, his sperm would fall under the control of his estate or of another legal representative. The arrangement was not publicly known until the Justice Department files were released earlier this year.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether Mr. Epstein\u2019s sperm is still being preserved \u2014 and, if so, where. CooperCompanies, which has owned California Cryobank since 2021, said the bank \u201cdoes not currently store any samples associated with Jeffrey Epstein\u201d but did not answer further questions. A representative for Mr. Epstein\u2019s estate did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n The documents do not indicate when Mr. Epstein first banked his sperm. He pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, and he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges when he died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.<\/p>\n Kimberly Mutcherson, a professor at Rutgers Law School who studies reproductive technology and bioethics, said that whether it was ethical for a sperm bank to accept sperm from a sex offender was a matter of debate in the fertility industry.<\/p>\n Some people in the field argue, Professor Mutcherson said, that if anybody can procreate by having sex, then anybody should be able to procreate using technology \u2014 and that gate-keeping services like sperm banking based on character, criminal history or other judgments about who is fit to parent would open the door to policies that have, in practice, often been used to discriminate based on race, class and disability.<\/p>\n But at the same time, she added, it\u2019s reasonable to ask \u201cwhether this is a set of circumstances where people would find the use of this person\u2019s sperm to be particularly odious.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Epstein left much of his money and possessions to his girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, through a trust<\/a> administered by his lawyer, Darren Indyke, and his accountant, Richard Kahn. About 40 other people are also named as potential beneficiaries, though no one, including Ms. Shuliak, has yet received anything. A lawyer for Ms. Shuliak declined to comment.<\/p>\n