PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Michiel De Proost
AU  - Gily Coene
AU  - Julie Nekkebroeck
AU  - Veerle Provoost
TI  - Beyond individualisation: towards a more contextualised understanding of women’s social egg freezing experiences
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2020-107190
DP  - 2022 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 386--390
VI  - 48
IP  - 6
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/48/6/386.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/48/6/386.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2022 Jun 01; 48
AB  - 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.