A Beijing court ordered a hospital to resume embryo-transfer treatment for a widow seeking to use two frozen embryos she and her husband created before his death.

On Sept. 22, Beijing’s Chaoyang District People’s Court disclosed details of the case while releasing its annual white paper on medical disputes. The court said it had ruled in favor of the woman, surnamed Zhang, who would be responsible for the related costs. It found that her request did not violate any law, the couple’s agreement, or ethical principles.

Zhang and her husband, Li, married in 2016 and later sought fertility treatment after she experienced repeated miscarriages and Li was diagnosed with secondary infertility. In 2019, the couple underwent treatment at a Beijing hospital’s reproductive center, where three embryos were frozen.

Li died of a brainstem hemorrhage in July of that year. Zhang later used one of the embryos and gave birth to a daughter, leaving two embryos remaining.

Years later, Zhang asked to use the two remaining embryos, but the hospital refused. It cited the difficulty of obtaining consent from her late husband, concerns that the request was linked to an inheritance dispute, a contract provision allowing the embryos to be destroyed if either spouse died, and the lack of approval from the hospital’s ethics committee.

Zhang said she was willing to assume all legal, ethical and moral responsibilities arising from the embryo transfer and any resulting childbirth. Zhang’s mother-in-law supported her decision, and Zhang later filed a lawsuit.

China’s regulations on human assisted reproductive technology, issued in the early 2000s, restrict access to such procedures to married couples and exclude single women.

The hospital argued that Zhang no longer met that requirement after her husband’s death, while Zhang argued that the embryos had been created during their marriage and that she should be allowed to proceed.

The Chaoyang court found that Zhang’s request did not violate the law, the couple’s agreement or ethical principles. It said there was no unresolved inheritance dispute, as Li’s estate had already been settled through notarization and a settlement agreement. The court also found that Zhang and Li had formed a clear, shared intention to have children before his death.

The judges said Zhang’s case differed from that of unmarried women seeking assisted reproductive treatment because the embryos had been created during her marriage. Having already helped Zhang complete one successful embryo transfer, the hospital could not later rely on restrictions on treatment for “single women” to deny access to the remaining embryos, the court said.

The court ordered the hospital to resume treatment, with Zhang responsible for related costs. It said Zhang was an independent rights holder under the embryo-transfer service contract. The judges said disputes involving assisted reproductive technology should balance legal limits, ethical considerations, family consensus and contractual obligations.

The court included the case in its annual white paper on medical disputes, describing it as an example of new legal questions arising from advances in assisted reproductive technology.

Editor: Apurva.

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