Wife Sues Husband, Mistress And Hospital Over IVF Embryos Created With Fake Marriage Certificate

A woman in eastern China has sued her husband, his alleged mistress and a Shanghai hospital after the pair allegedly used a forged marriage certificate to undergo IVF treatment and create viable embryos.

The case opened on July 30 in Shanghai and was not decided in court. The plaintiff, surnamed Zhu, from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, is seeking the destruction of the embryos, 100,000 yuan (US$14,706) in emotional-damage compensation from Zhongshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, and a public apology from the other woman.

Zhu said she and her husband had been married for 21 years. In the summer of 2025, she found that he had been taking male fertility supplements for an extended period, Knews reported.

In November 2025, Zhu said she saw a text message from Zhongshan Hospital on her husband’s phone and realized he had undergone assisted reproduction treatment with another woman. Her husband later admitted the matter, she said.

The next day, Zhu went to the hospital with a lawyer. She first contacted the hospital’s medical dispute office and later went to its reproductive center, where staff initially mistook her for the woman involved in the IVF treatment. After Zhu showed her real marriage certificate, the hospital confirmed that the pair had created surviving embryos, she said, according to the report.

Zhu demanded that the embryos be destroyed, arguing they had been obtained through forged documents. The hospital said it had no authority to do so and could only seal and preserve the embryos.

Police later opened an investigation into the forged certificate. Zhu said her husband and the other woman were each placed under administrative detention from May 11 to 16 this year, the report said.

Zhu also filed a complaint with the Shanghai health commission. According to her account, the commission said the hospital had checked the submitted documents as required and had not been found in violation of rules. It said the hospital had stopped related services and sealed the embryos, but that the commission had no authority to order their destruction, advising Zhu to pursue the matter through the courts.

Zhu said she received a summons for a divorce lawsuit filed by her husband on the same day as the embryo case hearing. That case is scheduled to be heard on August 11 in Wuxi.

Before the July 30 hearing, Zhu said she was notified that her husband had requested a closed trial. He did not appear in person and was represented by a lawyer. The hospital argued that its procedures were compliant and that it should not bear liability.

Special ethical entities

Li Ningwei, a Shanghai family lawyer, said the alleged forging of a marriage certificate was illegal, but that did not automatically mean the embryos could be destroyed. Chinese law does not clearly define frozen embryos, and courts generally treat them as special ethical entities — neither persons nor ordinary property — that carry potential life, she said, according to Knews.

Li said disposal rights usually belong to the biological providers of the sperm and egg, in this case Zhu’s husband and the other woman. Zhu, as the legal wife, may not have the right to demand destruction solely based on her marriage.

She said Zhu’s more urgent legal step would be to seek a court injunction barring embryo transfer, because implantation would be irreversible. Hospitals also face practical difficulties, Li said, because they are not connected to civil-affairs marriage-registration systems and may be unable to verify whether a marriage certificate is genuine, according to the report.