Ethical Aspects of AGE Banking

Mertes, Heidi

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14857-1_13

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 33 publications

(34 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One of the main motivations for healthy women who choose SEF is that they lack a stable relationship or other life benchmarks they believe are important before having a child (de Groot et al 2016 ; Kılıç and Göçmen 2018 ; Baldwin et al 2019 ). SEF is considered by some as controversial because of its unnaturalness, the possible risks it can create for healthy women, and the biomedicalisation of a societal problem (Mertes 2018 ; Kostenzer, de Bont, and van Exel 2021 ; Petersen 2021 ). Despite its controversy, SEF has been described as one of the fastest-growing assisted reproductive technologies within Europe, the UK, and other parts of the world (Jackson 2018 ; Johnston et al 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical versus social egg freezing: the importance of future choice for women’s decision-making

Proost

Paton

2022

Monash Bioeth. Rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the literature on oncofertility decision-making was central to the bioethics debate on social egg freezing when the practice emerged in the late 2000s, there has been little discussion juxtaposing the two forms of egg freezing since. This article offers a new perspective on this debate by comparing empirical qualitative data of two previously conducted studies on medical and social egg freezing. We re-analysed the interview data of the two studies and did a thematic analysis combined with interdisciplinary collaborative auditing for empirical ethics projects. Despite their different contexts, major similarities in women’s decision-making and reasoning were found. We developed two main common themes. Firstly, women felt a clear need to plan for future options. Secondly, they manipulated decision-times by postponing definitive decisions and making micro-decisions. The comparison highlights that the passage of time and the preservation of future choice seems to permeate all aspects of the patient experiences in both studies. As a result of considering real-world lived experiences, we suggest that there are many overlaps in women’s reasoning about egg freezing regardless of why they are making a decision to freeze. These overlaps are morally relevant and thus need to be further integrated into the existing arguments that have been canvassed in the flourishing egg freezing and fertility preservation debates across the field, and in policy and practice globally.

show abstract