Egg freezing, also known as mature oocyte cryopreservation, is an effective way to preserve a woman’s fertility and allows her to have a child in the future. However, one hospital in China was sued by Ms. Xu because the hospital refused to provide egg freezing for her as a single woman. The court hearing was scheduled on Dec 23, 2019 in Beijing.
According to Ms. Xu, on November 14, 2018, she went to the Beijing Maternity Hospital to attend a consultation on the issue of having her eggs frozen. As a result, it was confirmed that both her body and the eggs are healthy after relevant medical examinations. However, her request to have her eggs frozen was rejected, and she was told by the hospital that egg freezing for single women is not allowed according to relevant regulations.
Ms. Xu believes, as an adult woman over 30 years, she has the right to freeze her current eggs, which are best suited to ensure her fertility. She stated: “I’m an average single woman, but single women can have a lot of choices to reproduce. ” Though realizing it’s not easy, Ms. Xu decided to do something to fight for the right for herself and for all the women who share the same fate as her.
She sued the hospital in local courts. Since March of 2019, Ms. Xu has been rejected three times in different courts for trying to file a lawsuit in connection with a “medical contract dispute”. In September this year, she changed the cause of action to “general personality right” and this time, the court accepted her lawsuit.
1. Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Code (“HARTC”) developed by former Minister of Health in 2001 has made regulatory restrictions on egg freezing of single women, hospital has to comply with this HARTC.
2. Egg freezing technology for single women is not mature enough.
3. Single women wanting to have children will cause educational issues.
4. If egg freezing for single women is allowed and widely carried out, female childbearing age will be delayed further.
5. There are also ethical issues involved, such as surrogacy.
Obviously, Ms. Xu doesn’t agree with these arguments. She thinks egg freezing for single women does not mean that the child will be born in a single-parent family，as single women probably will get married in the future. In addition, married couples may also have the problem of educating children in single-parent families as a result of an increasing divorce rate.
Whatever the reason is, it’s not good enough to restrict a woman’s right to decide when and how to raise a child herself.
“My case actually represents the needs of many single women. “In Xu’s view, “egg freezing” is more like an insurance policy, “With this insurance, if I change my idea in the future, there is also an opportunity to re-make my choice.”
It’s a biological rule that women have a shorter reproductive period than men. However, in modern society, a woman’s marriage is generally delayed. Even married women have to postpone giving birth to a baby because of competition in promotion or their personal plans for career development, etc. It seems that egg freezing provides women with a choice regarding the timing of giving birth to baby.
The HARTC issued by the former Ministry of Health states: “The implementation of human assisted reproductive technology to couples and single women who do not comply with the national population and family planning regulations and regulations is prohibited.” However, this provision not only has no legal basis, but also conflicts with existing laws in China, such as:
Article 51 of the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests states: “Women have the right to have children in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State, as well as the freedom not to have children.”
Article 25 of the Marriage Act also provides that: “children born out of wedlock have the same rights as children born in wedlock and no one shall be subjected to harm or discrimination.”
Article 17 of the Population and Family Planning Act provides for the “right of citizens to have children”, which clearly includes single women and is not limited to couples in marriage.
Although these are some general provisions on the reproductive rights of single women in Chinese legislation. But according to the principal of “A citizen can do anything which is not prohibited by law”, as long as it does not hurt the public interest, people have the liberty to choose the life they want to live, we believe that single women (or unmarried women) deserve the right to freeze their eggs.
Furthermore, according to the current “Basic Standards and Technical Specifications for Human Sperm Banks” in China, the conditions for self-preservation are explicitly mentioned as “reproductive insurance” for the purpose of keeping sperm for future births, and there is no need to be married. To allow single men to freeze sperm on the one hand, and to prohibit single women from freezing their eggs on the other hand, is blatant gender discrimination.
In reality, many excellent women do not want to rush into marriage if they haven’t found their “Mr. Right” yet. However, the optimal age for women to give birth is before the age of thirty-five. For women who have not yet found their “Mr. Right” at the age of 35, they are likely to lose the chance of raising children for the rest of their lives, without resorting to egg freezing or other assisted reproductive technologies.
The biggest benefit of egg freezing and other related assisted reproductive techniques is to help this group of women to extend the window of their reproductive capability and help them fulfill their desire to become a mother. In addition, many women are capable of raising children on their own. We also have to respect their right of choosing to raise children differently.
In fact, in China, many single women have the need to freeze their eggs, there are many professional medical institutions which have the technology to provide such services. But some single women have to choose to freeze their eggs overseas (which is much more expensive and cumbersome), just because domestic regulations prohibit single women to do so.
On the other hand, according to recent statistics, the population of newborn babies in China is falling rapidly, despite the policy of removing restriction for a second child of the average Chinese family. Some experts are worried about the declining population in the near future and are calling for incentives to encourage young women to have more children.
Why then deny healthy and capable women the right to have a child in the first place – even if it’s brought about by reproductive medicine?
