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Women Hedge Bets By Banking Their Eggs
At least 138 clinics are freezing and banking eggs -- more than double the number three years ago. But some say more safety research is needed.
(Reproductive Medicine Associates Of New York)
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"We don't know what the cost may be to the children, and we don't know if it's good for society," said Adrienne Asch, who studies family issues at Yeshiva University.
Some worry that egg-freezing is continuing a trend of separating human reproduction from natural rhythms and relationships.
"If anything, I think our society needs to acknowledge the physiological constraints on women's fertility and get back to a more natural timing of childbearing," said William Hurlbut, a Stanford University bioethicist who serves on the President's Council on Bioethics.
Some cite the case of a Canadian woman who has frozen her eggs in order to give them to her 7-year-old daughter, who was born infertile, raising the prospect the girl could eventually bear her own half-sister.
"When we start to muddle up biological categories like mothers and sisters, who knows what the impact will be?" said Robert P. George of Princeton University, who also serves on the President's Council on Bioethics.
And because egg-freezing makes it possible to ship eggs around the world, critics fear it could lead to exploiting women in poorer countries, especially since the fertility industry is largely unregulated.
"We really need to consider how this could open the door to a global trade in women's eggs, which could turn out to be a very exploitative situation," said Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, Calif.
But others maintain those concerns are theoretical, while the needs of individual women are immediate and real.
"What happens now is women who have not met the right partner either decide to go it alone or end up settling for someone," said Rosanna Hertz, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Wellesley College. "This buys more time to find someone who you both love and want to be a parent to your child. This could mean women would no longer be slaves to their biological clocks."
