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Updated: Sep 30, 2026

Fertility Preservation Through Oocyte Vitrification: Clinical and Laboratory Perspectives
Published on: September 16, 2021
A Reproductive Justice Response on Social Egg Freezing
Michiel De Proost1,2, Ji-Young Lee3,4,5
1Bioethics Institute Ghent, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium. michiel.deproost@ugent.be.
Abstract:
Current bioethical reflections on social egg freezing appear to be dominated by a rights-based perspective, as illustrated by the recent publication by Gao and Liu in this journal. We argue that, to avoid theoretical blindness in this debate, a more reproductive justice-oriented perspective is necessary. In this article, we critically address two interrelated points in response to Gao and Liu's analysis. First, alongside their discussion of reproductive freedom, we introduce a reproductive justice framework to illustrate how intersectional forms of oppression may inhibit individuals from genuinely exercising any "right" to social egg freezing. Second, we highlight the case of weight bias among egg freezing candidates as a pertinent example of social domination in reproductive healthcare, one that exacerbates health inequalities.
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