23-Year-Old Dies Of Heart Attack While Donating Sperm For The 4th Time in a Week

A Chinese medical student died of a heart attack while looking at a 'sexy magazine' in a sperm bank - on his fourth visit to the centre in just over a week.

Zheng Gang, 23, was found dead in a private booth of a fertility clinic at Wuhan University after nurses noticed he was spending longer than usual producing his sample.

Two hours after he first entered the cubicle, medics broke in to find him lying unconscious on the floor.

Despite frantic efforts to resuscitate him where he lay, doctors pronounced him dead at the scene.

The tragic death - which happened in February 2012 -  only came to light after the young man's family took the sperm bank, in Wuhan city, Hubei province, eastern China, to court saying that they were responsible for his death.

But the court has now ruled that Zheng, who had started studying at the University to become a doctor in 2010, was entirely capable of making his own decisions about his life, including whether he wanted to take part in the sperm bank programme.

The court heard that the young trainee doctor signed up for the programme in January 2011 and in ten days had made four visits to donate sperm for the universities sperm bank program.

His family had demanded almost half £1 million in compensation, saying that they had pressurised him into agreeing to take part and had not handled the situation properly when he was found unconscious.

A lower court had only awarded the family £19,000 plus £8,000 in funeral costs, and the family had appealed. 

But the High Court has now upheld the lower court decision.

Zheng had donated his sperm on four previous occasions before his death and had even solicited others to donate their semen in the interests of society, according to reports.

The father asked the university to hold an autopsy but this request was rejected. The son was cremated the day after he died. 

Zheng's wife, Wu, who is also a student at the school, was compensated with a 20,000-yuan (£2,000) reduction in her tuition bill at the top university as well as help finding a job, said the Changjiang Times