[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-469954-105":59,"doc-detail-469954-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","justification-of-social-egg-freezing-and-regulatory-response-chinas-law-and-practice","Justification of Social Egg Freezing and Regulatory Response - China’s Law and Practice","","Social egg freezing (SEF) describes a woman’s voluntary decision to preserve eggs for later use as an exercise of bodily autonomy and a way to preserve or extend fertility. Because SEF differs from traditional “medical act” interventions, it has generated major, unresolved academic controversies. Debates often rely on consequentialist reasoning about outcomes, but a rights-based theory better supports SEF’s legitimacy as an individual claim to control her reproductive potential. Legal regulation is proposed to prevent abuse.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/justification-of-social-egg-freezing-and-regulatory-response-chinas-law-and-practice/469954/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/justification-of-social-egg-freezing-and-regulatory-response-chinas-law-and-practice/469954.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"acoobca","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does social egg freezing (SEF) differ from medical egg freezing?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"SEF involves freezing eggs or ovarian tissue for non-medical reasons to be used later, typically by fertile and healthy women. Medical egg freezing is framed within disease treatment, and the attributes of SEF versus medical interventions drive much of the debate.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What was decided in the first SEF lawsuit in China?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"An unmarried woman, Xu Zaozao, sued a hospital after her request to freeze her eggs was denied. The court ruled the refusal was not illegal and did not infringe her personal rights, so the hospital was not required to bear tort responsibility.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the paper argue that regulation should be based on a rights theory rather than consequentialism?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The paper contends that disputes are often framed through consequentialist views about ethical or medical outcomes, but SEF’s justification should instead center on the individual’s legitimate claim to exercise bodily autonomy over her reproductive potential. It also argues legal regulations are necessary to prevent abuse.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},469954,1791063816,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},3985747870733,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Bioethical Inquiry (2025) 22:811–828  \n[https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-024-10409-0](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-024-10409-0)  \nJustification of Social Egg Freezing and Regulatory Response: China’s Law and Practice  \nS. Gao · G. Liu  \nReceived: 13 May 2024 / Accepted: 12 November 2024 / Published online: 18 June 2025 © The Author(s) 2025  \nAbstract Social egg freezing (SEF) refers to the act of a woman’s voluntary decision to preserve her eggs for future use. It is considered an expression of her right to bodily autonomy, allowing her to make decisions about her own reproductive capacity. As a form of exercising personal rights, SEF is aimed at preserving or extending fertility. Owing to the difference in attributes between it and the traditional “medical act,” SEF has sparked significant controversies in the academic world that remain unresolved. These debates stem from uncertainty and are often framed through the lens of consequentialist theory—focusing on potential social, ethical, or medical outcomes. For SEF, a more appropriate position should be taken, based on the theory of rights. This perspective centreson the individual’s legitimate claim to exercise bodily autonomy, particularly in relation to their reproductive potential. SEF is essentially a specific claim by a woman to exercise her right to control her own body as a means of realising her autonomy over her own eggs. To avoid the abuse of SEF, necessary legal regulations should be put in place.  \nKeywords Bodily rights · Ethical dilemma · Individual autonomy · Regulatory system · Social egg freezing  \nS. Gao (*) · G. Liu  \nLaw School, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 211189, People’s Republic of China  \ne-mail: [754739762@qq.com](754739762@qq.com)  \nIntroduction  \nSocial egg freezing (SEF) is the term used when eggs or ovarian tissue are frozen for non-medical causes tobe used later in life (Varlas et al. 2021), as opposed to medical egg freezing in the context of disease treatment. As its aim is to preserve fertility and provide eggs for future fertility, SEF is essentially non-medical egg freezing conducted by fertile and healthy women. There are differences in attributes between SEF and traditional medical treatments (RimonZarfaty et al. 2021), generating ongoing debate and controversy in academic and ethical discussions. Divergences and controversies are inevitable in the discussion of freedoms and rights, especially in the  \nmatter of reproduction (Wang, Fan, and Shao 2024) .  \nThe first SEF lawsuit in China raises the theoretical inquiry: is the freedom to freeze eggs for social reasons justified? In the Chinese case, Xu Zaozao—an unmarried woman with a healthy reproductive system—sued the hospital after it denied her request to freeze her eggs, arguing that the hospital’s refusal violated her general personal rights. On July 22, 2022, the plaintiff lost the case (Chaoyang District People’s Court 2019) . The court ruled that the hospital’s refusal to freeze the eggs was not illegal and did not infringe upon the plaintiff’s personal rights. Thus, the defendant does not have to bear the responsibility of tort. The case gives rise to the question of whether SEF should be permitted in China. The core of the argument concerned SEF is that it is doubtful whether  \ncan be regulated and guided within the existing legislative system. If the Code of Assisted Human Reproductive Technology (“ART Code”) does not apply to SEF, and SEF can only rely on the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China (“Civil Code”) to find a basis for its rights, then this will lead to two questions: (1) What is the basis for the right to demand SEF? (2) If the medical sector rejects the request for SEF, even though SEF is legal, and the woman claiming egg freezing has that claim, then how will she claim the positive power of her right?  \nThere are different views of “opposition,”“support,” and “neutrality” regarding SEF in China, with the controversy culminating in the first case ","cbCaifMsEfJFRLj6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifMsEfJFRLj6","pdf",564626,18,"English","# Introduction\n## Definition and ethical distinction of SEF\n## The first SEF lawsuit in China\n## Competing positions: opposition, support, neutrality\n# Comparative regulatory landscape\n## International approaches\n## China’s current restrictions","[{\"question\":\"How does social egg freezing (SEF) differ from medical egg freezing?\",\"answer\":\"SEF involves freezing eggs or ovarian tissue for non-medical reasons to be used later, typically by fertile and healthy women. Medical egg freezing is framed within disease treatment, and the attributes of SEF versus medical interventions drive much of the debate.\"},{\"question\":\"What was decided in the first SEF lawsuit in China?\",\"answer\":\"An unmarried woman, Xu Zaozao, sued a hospital after her request to freeze her eggs was denied. The court ruled the refusal was not illegal and did not infringe her personal rights, so the hospital was not required to bear tort responsibility.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper argue that regulation should be based on a rights theory rather than consequentialism?\",\"answer\":\"The paper contends that disputes are often framed through consequentialist views about ethical or medical outcomes, but SEF’s justification should instead center on the individual’s legitimate claim to exercise bodily autonomy over her reproductive potential. It also argues legal regulations are necessary to prevent abuse.\"}]","Justification of Social Egg Freezing and Regulatory Response - China’s Law and Practice | PDF",1790776493,45]