The parents of a dead couple who left frozen embryos were refused ownership of the embryos by a court in Yixing, Jiangsu province, People's Daily reported on Friday.

The son and daughter-in-law of the plaintiff surnamed Shen had difficulty conceiving naturally so underwent assisted reproductive technology in February 2012 in a hospital in Nanjing, capital of the province.

The couple planned to have an operation to transplant embryos into the wife’s womb on March 25, 2013, but they were both killed in a traffic accident on March 20.

The parents of the couple later quarreled over how to deal with the frozen embryos left by their children. Shen filed a lawsuit with Yixing city court against the parents of his daughter-in-law as well as against the hospital, asking to inherit the frozen embryos.

After a hearing, the court made its judgment on Thursday that Shen's request was refused because the frozen embryos were intended for the dead couple to have a baby with help of technology and the frozen embryos with limited rights could not be inherited.