While attending the funeral of the Federal District Judge Veronica Wicker, for whom she had clerked, Judge Berry heard a news broadcast about a little girl who was seeking social security death benefits from her deceased father's account. The Social Security Administration denied her request because the little girl in question was born three years after the death of her father. It seemed that the child's father had contracted an incurable disease and decided to freeze his genetic material before he passed away. His wife conceived by using he deceased husband's frozen genetic material three years after he died. The government concluded the child was not an heir under the law. Judge Berry was intrigued by the complexity of the legal issues and how they were intertwined with decisions medical providers are required to make in the care and treatment of their patients. She spent approximately three years researching the various legal issues of life after death for her Masters of Judicial Studies thesis and degree. She conducted extensive research in the United States, as well as the British Institute of Comparative Law in England. Her thesis is entitled: Life After Death: Preservation of the Immortal Seed, Tulane Law Review, Volume 72, number 1 (1997). Judge Berry has appeared on the BBC television program "Modern Times" as a guest commentator on the complex issues of postmortem artificial insemination and the legal ramifications of these medical technologies.