The Tokyo High Court refused Wednesday to recognize that a girl conceived using sperm taken from a man before he died is his.

"Medical technology for reproductive treatment using sperm of a dead man represents a wide gap from natural reproduction, and we cannot say there is common social recognition accepting such medical treatment," presiding Judge Kimio Miyazaki said in the ruling, which upheld a Tokyo District Court decision.

The district court rejected in September a lawsuit filed by the girl's mother seeking paternal recognition of her daughter, who was conceived via in vitro fertilization using sperm from her common-law husband in the Kanto region.

In 2001, according to the court, the man had his sperm taken on five occasions and it was kept frozen at a medical institution. By the time he died the next year, three in vitro fertilization attempts had failed. The woman became pregnant on the fourth attempt, after his death.

The Civil Code allows for legal recognition of children conceived via in vitro fertilization while the father is alive, but there is no law or guideline addressing the handling of frozen sperm after the donor's death.

The lower court judge had said the donor's consent for his sperm to be used for in vitro fertilization must be confirmed each time an attempt is made and it cannot be construed that the man's consent was valid after his death.

But the woman said her partner was prepared to recognize a future baby as he was thinking of a name for the child, so his consent was valid after he died.