We need to talk about egg freezing
By Eva Wiseman,
The Guardian
| 02. 07. 2016
Untitled Document
Georgina Williams was eight years into a city career, two years into a relationship, and 20 minutes into a tube ride when she saw a fertility clinic’s advert for egg donors. If you donated your eggs, they offered to freeze extra for your own use. She made an appointment. Offering me a seat in her serene basement flat, she exhales, with meaning: “And so it began.”
The first “ice baby” from an egg frozen through vitrification was born in December 2010. In 2012 the label of “experimental” was removed, but with a disclaimer: “There are not yet sufficient data to recommend [egg freezing] for the sole purpose of circumventing reproductive ageing in healthy women,” said the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, “because there are no data to support the safety, efficacy, ethics, emotional risks and cost- effectiveness of oocyte cryopreservation for this indication.” It was the equivalent of them raising their eyebrows as you reach for a tree branch, and saying: “But don’t come running to me…” They knew you were going to climb anyway. Citing the lack...
Related Articles
CGS is excited to announce the launch of a new anti-eugenics initiative that has been years in the making. Legacies of Eugenics in Science, Medicine, and Technology kicks off with a monthly essay series published at the Los Angeles Review of Books that will expose and contest the reemergence of eugenic ideas in contemporary health sciences, human biotechnology, public health, and medicine. Community and campus-based events featuring the authors are also being planned. The project is a collaboration among CGS...
By Jason Kehe, Wired | 04.11.2024
God help the babies! Or, absent God, a fertility startup called Orchid. It offers prospective parents a fantastical choice: Have a regular baby or have an Orchid baby. A regular baby might grow up and get cancer. Or be born...
By Neel Shah, The PrePrint | 04.11.2024
Years ago, I interviewed for a residency position at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Standing before the domed Victorian building at the campus entrance, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the history of the place, the great...
By Eleanor Hayward and Joanna Crawford, The Times | 03.29.2024
Gazing out at the Mediterranean from an idyllic rocky mountaintop, Sophie Hermann announced to her half a million Instagram followers that she had decided to freeze her eggs. Since that post in August, the 37-year-old former Made in Chelsea star...