Wang Hao
Shen Junru Law School, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
J Med Ethics. 2023 Dec 14;50(1):50-56. doi: 10.1136/jme-2023-108915.
In the name of safeguarding public interests and ethical principles, China's National Health Commission bans unmarried women from using assisted reproductive technology (ART), including egg freezing. Supported by local governments, the ban has restricted single women's reproductive rights nationwide. Although some courts bypassed the ban to allow widowed single women to use ART, they have not adopted a position in favour of single women's reproductive autonomy, but quite the contrary. Faced with calls to relax the ban and allow single women to freeze eggs electively, the National Health Commission refused to amend their policy, partly to protect women's well-being paternalistically and partly to implement the central government's policies to boost the birthrate and maintain traditional family structures. While the government's concerns about elective egg freezing are not entirely unfounded, they have failed to demonstrate that banning single women's egg freezing is a suitable, necessary and proportionate means to safeguard societal interests and ethical principles. The authority's assumptions that women cannot make rational decisions for their health even with adequate informed consent procedures, that banning egg freezing by single women promotes a culture of having children 'at a proper age', and that egg freezing by single women offends China's public moralities have not been substantiated.
以维护公共利益和伦理原则之名，中国国家卫生健康委员会禁止未婚女性使用辅助生殖技术（ART），包括卵子冷冻。在地方政府的支持下，这一禁令在全国范围内限制了单身女性的生育权利。尽管一些法院绕过该禁令，允许丧偶单身女性使用辅助生殖技术，但它们并未支持单身女性的生育自主权，反而持相反态度。面对放宽禁令并允许单身女性自主冷冻卵子的呼声，国家卫生健康委员会拒绝修改其政策，部分原因是家长式地保护女性福祉，部分原因是执行中央政府提高出生率和维持传统家庭结构的政策。虽然政府对选择性卵子冷冻的担忧并非毫无根据，但他们未能证明禁止单身女性卵子冷冻是维护社会利益和伦理原则的适当、必要且相称的手段。当局认为即使有充分的知情同意程序，女性也无法为自己的健康做出理性决定，禁止单身女性冷冻卵子能促进“适龄生育”文化，以及单身女性冷冻卵子冒犯了中国的公共道德等假设，均未得到证实。
