Abstract:
The phenomenon of single women’s egg freezing as a right in the new social context has gradually been formed. Although China’s constitution and laws do not restrict the use of assisted reproductive technology by single women, the subordinate law sets “marriage” as a condition for the use of this technology, which constitutes a substantial deprivation of single women’s right to freeze eggs. There is sufficient basis for single women’s right to freeze eggs: allowing single men to freeze sperm for the purpose of “reproductive insurance” and restricting single women from freezing eggs fails to pass the review of the principle of equality, which constitutes a violation of the equality right of single women; as an integral part of the female body, the egg can be embodied by the “freedom of movement” power of the body’s right; single women are entitled to the right of assisted reproduction, and egg freezing belongs to the right to choose assisted reproduction and the right to guarantee assisted reproduction. To realize the interests of single women in modern society to freeze eggs, respect for the right to make independent decisions on reproduction should be regarded as the legislative value orientation, and reasonable restrictions on the right to freeze eggs should be set based on social ethics and health risks. An egg bank should be established as a realistic basis for system norms to support its insurance system, reporting system and egg disposal rules. In addition, the providers of egg freezing technology should be strictly limited to public medical institutions, and commercial egg freezing services should be prohibited to prevent single women from being “socially controlled” under patriarchy.