Cargando…

Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis

In recent years, a social trend toward delaying childbearing has been observed in women of reproductive age. A novel technomedical innovation was commercialized for non-medical reasons to healthy, ostensibly fertile women, who wished to postpone motherhood for various reasons such as educational or...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Borovecki, Ana, Tozzo, Pamela, Cerri, Nicoletta, Caenazzo, Luciana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6321944/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30687678
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2018.1484
_version_ 1783385535228674048
author Borovecki, Ana
Tozzo, Pamela
Cerri, Nicoletta
Caenazzo, Luciana
author_facet Borovecki, Ana
Tozzo, Pamela
Cerri, Nicoletta
Caenazzo, Luciana
author_sort Borovecki, Ana
collection PubMed
description In recent years, a social trend toward delaying childbearing has been observed in women of reproductive age. A novel technomedical innovation was commercialized for non-medical reasons to healthy, ostensibly fertile women, who wished to postpone motherhood for various reasons such as educational or career demands, or because they had not yet found a partner. As a consequence, these women may be affected by age-related infertility when they decide to conceive, and fertility preservation techniques can be obtained through the so-called social egg freezing. This paper examines, from an ethical point of view, the impact of social egg freezing under some aspects that can involve policy making and resources allocation in public health. Due to the increasing demand for this procedure, some debated issues regard if it is reasonable to include social egg freezing in Public Healthcare System and consequently how to manage the storage of cryopreserved oocytes also from individual donors, how to support these egg banks and how to face, in the future, with the possibility that egg freezing will play a role in enabling childbearing for gays, lesbians, and unmarried persons. Social freezing may be advertised to harmonise gender differences, but we wonder if it is the proper solution to the problem or if it could also create further challenges. An ethical argumentation on these topics should address some questions that will be discussed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6321944
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-63219442019-01-25 Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis Borovecki, Ana Tozzo, Pamela Cerri, Nicoletta Caenazzo, Luciana J Public Health Res Article In recent years, a social trend toward delaying childbearing has been observed in women of reproductive age. A novel technomedical innovation was commercialized for non-medical reasons to healthy, ostensibly fertile women, who wished to postpone motherhood for various reasons such as educational or career demands, or because they had not yet found a partner. As a consequence, these women may be affected by age-related infertility when they decide to conceive, and fertility preservation techniques can be obtained through the so-called social egg freezing. This paper examines, from an ethical point of view, the impact of social egg freezing under some aspects that can involve policy making and resources allocation in public health. Due to the increasing demand for this procedure, some debated issues regard if it is reasonable to include social egg freezing in Public Healthcare System and consequently how to manage the storage of cryopreserved oocytes also from individual donors, how to support these egg banks and how to face, in the future, with the possibility that egg freezing will play a role in enabling childbearing for gays, lesbians, and unmarried persons. Social freezing may be advertised to harmonise gender differences, but we wonder if it is the proper solution to the problem or if it could also create further challenges. An ethical argumentation on these topics should address some questions that will be discussed. PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy 2018-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6321944/ /pubmed/30687678 http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2018.1484 Text en ©Copyright A. Borovecki et al., 2018 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Borovecki, Ana
Tozzo, Pamela
Cerri, Nicoletta
Caenazzo, Luciana
Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis
title Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis
title_full Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis
title_fullStr Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis
title_full_unstemmed Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis
title_short Social egg freezing under public health perspective: Just a medical reality or a women’s right? An ethical case analysis
title_sort social egg freezing under public health perspective: just a medical reality or a women’s right? an ethical case analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6321944/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30687678
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2018.1484
work_keys_str_mv AT boroveckiana socialeggfreezingunderpublichealthperspectivejustamedicalrealityorawomensrightanethicalcaseanalysis
AT tozzopamela socialeggfreezingunderpublichealthperspectivejustamedicalrealityorawomensrightanethicalcaseanalysis
AT cerrinicoletta socialeggfreezingunderpublichealthperspectivejustamedicalrealityorawomensrightanethicalcaseanalysis
AT caenazzoluciana socialeggfreezingunderpublichealthperspectivejustamedicalrealityorawomensrightanethicalcaseanalysis