Da Yong Chen, a 45-year-old father of one, experienced severe chest pain on the morning of July 6.
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Doctors at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital found that a major blood vessel had ruptured and ordered he undergo emergency surgery. His condition was considered acute and life-threatening.
Just before he was put under a general anaesthetic, he told his wife Ping Yuan he "wanted to have one more child with her".
At 6pm that evening, he came out of surgery and was placed in the intensive care unit, where his condition deteriorated.
He did not regain consciousness and Ms Yuan was told he might only have had hours to live.
She asked the hospital to extract sperm from her unconscious husband.
The hospital's Fertility Clinic told her it had the ability to extract the sperm and store it for insemination at a later date, as long as proper consent was given.
As it appeared unlikely Mr Chen would regain consciousness to be able to give consent himself, an urgent ex parte application was bought before the NSW Supreme Court at 9pm on July 7.
Justice Desmond Fagan was told that posthumous extraction of sperm would be possible but with diminished prospects of viability the longer it occurred after death.
During the hearing, which occurred via telephone from the hospital, Ms Yuan's lawyers told the court that Mr Chen's comments to his wife as he awaited surgery did not amount to consent.
Therefore they asked Justice Fagan to declare that the hospital could lawfully extract the sperm under the consent of Ms Yuan, as the "person responsible" for Mr Chen under the Guardianship Act.
Given the urgency of the situation, Justice Fagan made the order, although he said the issues needed to be explored properly at a later date.
Sperm was extracted from Mr Chen and he died 45 minutes later.
On Tuesday, the matter returned to court.
Justice Fagan ordered that the sperm not be used until a further court order.
He said there appeared to be questions as to whether consent had legally been obtained.
He directed the case to the Attorney-General and the Director-General of the Department of Health.
Justice Fagan ordered Ms Yuan not to seek to use or deal with the sperm or to remove it from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's fertility clinic.
