Freezer Mums
Is 'social egg freezing' commercialising motherhood?
Oocyte cryopreservation is a new technique allowing women to delay having children. However, the medical and ethical ramifications continue to cause controversy.
Social egg freezing means that women like Mélissa Catoquessa can delay motherhood to pursue a career. "It’s insurance", she explains. Yet there are medical and ethical concerns. Pregnancies in older women risk complications, and there are fears that, for all its emancipatory potential, egg freezing could be used by employers against women. "I see this effort to force women to delay pregnancy into their 50s as an attack on women", warns Eleonora Porcu, Head of Department for reproductive medicine at the University of Bologna.
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