Opinions please.

That is so sad, on all counts. That she has lost her daughter, that she so desperately wants to carry out her daughter's wishes but is thwarted, that it looks likely she will effectively 'lose' her grandchild as well as her daughter.
To know there are embryos - embryos that have the potential to become your grandchild(ren) - but not be able to give them life, must be utterly heartbreaking. My heart goes out to her.

Absolutely with you both on the "Poor woman" comments, for all the reasons Annsixty says.
It does raise the question "Whose baby" which is also prevalent in the sort of posts on other threads in the past regarding "Grandparents' rights" .
You cannot replace a child or a relationship with a child, with a grandchild and as grandparents we need to bear that in mind as sometimes the boundaries become blurred.

The daughter died of cancer so I assume that she had embryos frozen before treatment so she could use them if treatment was successful.

Rather perplexed by that Anya.
If you mean because she has lost her daughter I totally agree.
If you mean because she has been refused permission I don't agree.
If you mean poor deluded woman because she thinks it's a good idea then again I can totally agree.

She must be in some distress and turmoil to feel that this is an appropriate thing to do. I wonder what the history is behind the embryos being stored in the first place - presumably she had some illness that might decrease her fertility and wanted to use them herself. And where is the father of these embryos?

Poor woman.