A man surnamed Shen said he felt desperate after a court in Yixing, Jiangsu province, refused his request to inherit four frozen embryos that belonged to his dead son and daughter-in-law.

Shen, who is in his 50s and requested that only his last name be revealed, lost his only child and daughter-in-law in a car accident on March 20, 2013. His daughter-in-law, surnamed Liu, who also was the only child of her family, planned to have the embryos implanted five days later in Nanjing, capital of the province.

The lawsuit against Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, which arose from its reluctance to transfer the frozen embryos, went to court on Thursday.