A single Chinese woman has begun an appeal in her legal battle for the right to freeze her eggs, a procedure only available in China to married couples.
Xu Zaozao took legal action in 2019 after a Beijing hospital refused to freeze her eggs but a Beijing court dismissed her case in July 2022.
Her case is widely followed in China, where women’s rights have become an increasingly prominent issue and the falling birthrate is of growing concern.
Xu says she wants to freeze her eggs to give herself the option of having a child alone if she cannot find a partner.
“I hope more people will recognise the fact that there is a whole diversity of single women,” Xu told the Beijing court where the appeal trial opened on Tuesday.
“They have the right to have autonomy in matters of reproduction and to make decisions concerning their own bodies,” she told journalists.
Since Xu lost her initial case in 2022 a lot has changed. China recorded the first decline in its population in six decades last year, against a backdrop of very low fertility rates (1.15 children per woman) and the government now strongly encourages people to have children.
In a revolutionary move, the south-west province of Sichuan in January said it would allow single people to register their child, while elsewhere in China it is an option still only available to married people.
This opening “gives me hope” for greater consideration of women’s rights, Xu said.
“I know very well that we don’t have such a great chance of winning because this case has a great impact on society,” she said. “But it provokes public debate and single women have been able to speak out openly.”
Judgment will be announced at a later date.
Egg freezing consists of removing the oocytes before preserving them in liquid nitrogen to be used in a subsequent pregnancy. Women around the world choose to freeze their eggs to give them a greater chance of having children later in life.
Economic development has pushed more Chinese women into the job market in recent decades, leaving many choosing to marry later in life. Many women face great pressure from parents to get married and have a child after the age of 30.
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