Hecht

Petitioner, the girlfriend of decedent William E. Kane, seeks a peremptory writ of mandate/prohibition to vacate a January 4, 1993, order directing the personal representative of decedent’s estate to destroy all of the decedent’s sperm in the custody and control of California Cryobank, Inc. The real parties in interest are the administrator of the decedent’s estate, (Robert L. Greene) and the decedent’s adult son (William E. Kane, Jr.) and adult daughter (Katharine E. Kane). We issued an order to show cause and order staying execution of the January 4, 1993, order.

This proceeding presents several matters of first impression involving the disposition of cryogenically preserved sperm of a deceased. We conclude that the trial court’s order constituted an abuse of discretion in the procedural posture of this case which compels us to set aside such order.

Factual and Procedural Background

At the age of 48, William E. Kane took his own life on October 30, 1991, in a Las Vegas hotel. For about five years prior to his death, he had been living with petitioner, thirty-eight-year-old Deborah E. Hecht. Kane was survived by two college-age children of his former wife whom he had…