A review of laws on creating babies from dead people's sperm and eggs has boosted hopes an inspirational Auckland teenager can father a child despite dying 11 years ago.

Sharon Duncan's son, promising young filmmaker Cameron Duncan, died aged 17 from bone cancer in November 2003.

The previous year, when only aged 15, he banked sperm before starting chemotherapy because he knew it could destroy his fertility and he wanted children in his future.

At the time, he signed a form gifting the sperm to his mother if he died.

To date, New Zealand's laws and regulations have blocked his mother's desire to use his frozen sperm to create her grandchild.

However, she has welcomed a move by the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART) to seek ministerial approval to start reviewing outdated laws and regulations about collection, storage and use of gametes and embryos from dead and comatose people.

"It absolutely gives me hope and I'd rather have it happen sooner rather than later to allow us to produce a child from Cameron.

"Other people are in the same situation as myself and this will open the door for them too."

Some years ago, she inquired at a fertility clinic whether her son's frozen sperm could be used to impregnate someone, such as a friend, a family member (excluding herself) or a surrogate. She wanted to raise her grandchild on her son's behalf.

However, she was told the law made it impossible.

Under the 2004 Human Assisted Reproductive Technology (HART) Act, nobody has the right to use sperm stored by a minor aged under 16, except the person himself. An applicant to use the sperm has to show he gave consent for the use of his sperm before he died.

When Cameron banked his sperm, there were no questions on the clinic's forms about its use if he died.

"It's not his fault that nothing was on the forms," his mother said.

Last year, she was granted a one-year extension to keep Cameron's sperm frozen because the law also imposed a 10-year limit on storage of frozen gametes, embryos and other fertility tissue.

At the time, ACART said she would have to prove how the law could allow using her son's sperm without his consent.

"If they can overcome that legal hurdle, then there would be an ability to consider the posthumous use of these gametes under the guidelines," acting committee chairwoman Alison Douglass told the Sunday Star-Times last year.

Duncan stressed it was not about recreating her son, but was about her right to have a grandchild from him. "I consider it a huge gift that he left this to me."

His family had not discussed what to do with Cameron's sperm before his death because they were so focused on his survival.

"We didn't give up the fight until right at the end."

Cameron's short films about his cancer journey caught the eye of Wellington's movie power couple Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who included them in the final DVD chapter in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. His illness inspired the lyrics of Walsh's Oscar-winning song Into the West.

ACART highlighted Cameron's case to Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne in briefing papers to him last November, which were released this week to the Sunday Star-Times.

Dunne said he expected to make a decision next month about whether to agree to the review.