TY - JOUR T1 - Beyond individualisation: towards a more contextualised understanding of women’s social egg freezing experiences JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics DO - 10.1136/medethics-2020-107190 SP - medethics-2020-107190 AU - Michiel De Proost AU - Gily Coene AU - Julie Nekkebroeck AU - Veerle Provoost Y1 - 2021/04/11 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2021/04/11/medethics-2020-107190.abstract N2 - Recently, Petersen provided in this journal a critical discussion of individualisation arguments in the context of social egg freezing. This argument underlines the idea that it is morally problematic to use individual technological solutions to solve societal challenges that women face. So far, however, there is a lack of empirical data to contextualise his central normative claim that individualisation arguments are implausible. This article discusses an empirical study that supports a contextualised reading of the normative work of Petersen. Based on a qualitative interview study, we found that most women could make sense of this argument but addressed other concerns that are overlooked in the premises of moral individualisation arguments, for instance, the influence of relationship formation on the demand of egg freezing. Furthermore, women did not experience social egg freezing as morally problematic. Nonetheless, the interviewees pointed to a need of more societal solutions and even actively advocated for efforts to increase accessibility such as a partial reimbursement and better quality of information. The implications of these findings for empirical bioethics are discussed. While more research is needed, we argue that, in order to better address individualisation arguments and related ethical concerns, we need to contextualise normative evaluations within women’s moral reasoning.Data are available upon request. ER -