Her first son was. born after a three-year legal battle to conceive using the frozen sperm of her dead husband. And yesterday, 36year-old Diane Blood gave birth to a second son conceived in the same way.

Joel Michael, who was two weeks overdue, was born by Caesarean section at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital, weighing a healthy 8lb. Last night Mrs. Blood’s mother-in-law Gill Blood, 60, said Diane was ‘over the moon’ with her new son, a brother to Liam, who is now three. ‘Joel is just  an absolutely lovely baby,’ she said. ‘I know my son would have been over the, moon as well. He absolutely. loved children. He is in our thoughts a lot today. We are all just so happy.’ Diane had persuaded doctors to take sperm samples from Stephen Blood as he lay dying from meningitis in 1995. But Mrs. Blood was to suffer further heartbreak when the Human Fertilization an Embryology Authority ruled his sperm could not be used because he had not given written consent.

A lengthy court battle followed, in which Diane had to re-mortgage her house in Worksop. Nottinghamshire.

Eventually, tile Court of Appeal ruled she had the tight to go to another European country to undergo the procedure. On both occasions, Diane went to a private clinic in Belgium forte treatment.

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