A Greek woman has lost a complex legal fight to have her gynaecologist lover recognized as the father of the twins she conceived following in-vitro fertilization, under a Supreme Court decision made public on Saturday.

The woman said her lover — whom she had approached for fertility treatment only to embark on an affair with him — had promised to use her eggs and his sperm in the fertilization process. However, DNA testing of the 15-year-old twins proved that the genetic material had been provided by unnamed donors. The woman had wanted the gynaecologist, from whom she separated shortly after the twins’ birth, to be recognized as their legal father and pay her alimony as well as compensation. Both had been married to other people when they had their five-year affair.

But the Supreme Court argued that, in an extramarital affair, a man’s consent to the fertilization process — using someone else’s sperm — did not result in any obligation involving paternity or alimony.