Does company-sponsored egg freezing promote or confine women's reproductive autonomy?

被引:38
|
作者
Mertes, Heidi [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Ghent, Bioeth Inst Ghent, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
基金
比利时弗兰德研究基金会;
关键词
Ethics; Oocyte cryopreservation; AGE banking; Social egg freezing; OOCYTE BANKING; TECHNOLOGY;
D O I
10.1007/s10815-015-0500-8
中图分类号
Q3 [遗传学];
学科分类号
071007 ; 090102 ;
摘要
A critical ethical analysis of the initiative of several companies to cover the costs of oocyte cryopreservation for their healthy employees. The main research question is whether such policies promote or confine women's reproductive autonomy. A distinction needs to be made between the ethics of AGE banking in itself and the ethics of employers offering it to their employees. Although the utility of the former is expected to be low, there are few persuasive arguments to deny access to oocyte cryopreservation to women who are well informed about the procedure and the success rates. However, it does not automatically follow that it would be ethically unproblematic for employers to offer egg banking to their employees. For these policies to be truly 'liberating', a substantial number of conditions need to be fulfilled, which can be reduced to three categories: (1) women should understand the benefits, risks and limitations, (2) women should feel no pressure to take up the offer; (3) the offer should have no negative effect on other family-friendly policies and should in fact be accompanied by such policies. Fulfilling these conditions may turn out to be impossible. Thus, regardless of companies' possible good intentions, women's reproductive autonomy is not well served by offering them company-sponsored AGE banking.
引用
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页码:1205 / 1209
页数:5
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