Department of Anthropology, Yale University, 10 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
Department of Nursing, University of Haifa, 3498838, Haifa, Israel.
Soc Sci Med. 2020 May;253:112976. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112976. Epub 2020 Apr 6.
In this article, we elucidate how elective egg freezing (EEF) has been received within the three Abrahamic traditions-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-and how these religion-specific standpoints have affected the EEF experiences of women who self-identify as religiously observant. Through an analysis of religious women's narratives, the study explores the "local moral worlds" of religious women who chose to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons. It draws on ethnographic interviews with 14 women in the United States and Israel who had completed at least one EEF cycle, and who were part of a large, binational study that interviewed, between 2014 and 2016, 150 women who pursued EEF. These religious women, who were all highly educated, faced a particular challenge in finding appropriate marriage partners. Feeling pressured but still hopeful to marry and create large families, the women used EEF to extend their reproductive timelines and reduce their anxieties. As the study showed, the women reinterpreted or reconciled religious restrictions on the use of EEF in various ways, believing that their ultimate pursuit of religiously sanctioned reproduction justified the means. This study, which is the first to compare Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women's experiences of EEF, illustrates how this novel technology is now shaping the local moral worlds of religious women.
在本文中，我们阐明了选择性卵子冷冻（EEF）在犹太教、基督教和伊斯兰教这三个亚伯拉罕传统中是如何被接受的，以及这些特定宗教观点如何影响了那些自认为是宗教信徒的女性的 EEF 体验。通过对宗教女性的叙述进行分析，本研究探讨了选择出于非医疗原因冷冻卵子的宗教女性的“当地道德世界”。该研究借鉴了对 14 名美国和以色列女性的民族志访谈，这些女性至少完成了一次 EEF 周期，她们是一项大型跨国研究的一部分，该研究在 2014 年至 2016 年间采访了 150 名进行 EEF 的女性。这些宗教女性都受过高等教育，她们在寻找合适的婚姻伴侣方面面临着特殊的挑战。这些女性感到有压力，但仍然希望结婚并组建大家庭，因此她们利用 EEF 来延长生育时间并减轻焦虑。研究表明，这些女性以各种方式重新解释或调和了宗教对 EEF 使用的限制，她们认为自己对宗教认可的生殖的最终追求证明了这种手段是合理的。本研究首次比较了犹太教、基督教和伊斯兰教女性的 EEF 体验，说明了这项新技术如何正在塑造宗教女性的当地道德世界。
