Margaret Somerville tackles the ethical questions raised by egg freezing. Her review of the issue again makes clear that some reproductive “choices” offered to women leave us with fewer real choices and less freedom:
However, as Seema Mohapatra points out in an article in the Harvard Law and Policy Review, offering egg freezing could mean women who choose not to postpone childbearing might be seen as not sufficiently committed to their career, thus harming their progress. Do such coercive possibilities mean a decision to postpone is not autonomous and free? Is that also true if a woman’s parents offer to pay for freezing and storage, because they want to ensure they will have grandchildren?
I read some medical and sociological journal articles a few weeks on the impact of abortion on women. Guess what? Since abortion on demand has been available, a significant number of women have felt coerced and pressured into abortion by partners, parents, friends and their medical practitioners. They felt trapped and hopeless. Even indifference by partners and family or hearing the refrain “we’ll support whatever you choose” made many feel like they were alone in their circumstances and that they had no real choice in the matter.
Sometimes a choice offered to us really isn’t a true choice.
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