(CNN) A cadet at the US Military Academy West Point received fatal injuries in a ski accident last month. Days later, a state Supreme Court judge granted his parents' petition to save their son's sperm in order to continue his legacy and their family lineage.

Another skier found 21-year-old Peter Zhu unresponsive on a ski slope on the academy grounds in upstate New York on February 23, according to a school news release. He was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center, where doctors determined that Zhu's spinal cord was fractured, and he was declared medically brain-dead three days later, court documents say.

Zhu's parents, Yongmin and Monica Zhu of Concord, California, filed a petition Friday morning, pleading with the court to allow the hospital to proceed with a sperm retrieval procedure on their son's body.

He always wanted to live on a ranch and raise a family and have horses, his parents say in their petition.

More than his wishes to become a father, Peter is the only male child to continue the Zhu family lineage. His parents attribute this mostly to China's "one-child" policy, which forced his uncles to each have only one daughter, the petition says.

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