No abstract

Genetic relatedness figures heavily in contemporary ethical debates on egg freezing, although the arguments lack empirical‐based evidence. Rather than adding another theoretical view on the moral relevance of genetic connections, this paper instead proposes an empirically grounded perspective based on two independent qualitative interview‐based studies conducted in Belgium and France. Three themes emerge from our empirical data: (1) prioritizing family building; (2) centering the gestational experience of motherhood; and (3) identifying the complexities and limitations of adoption. These themes suggest that the relationship between egg freezing, genetics, biological motherhood, and adoption is highly complex and less straightforward than what is often assumed in the egg freezing debate. Our study provides more detailed insights into women's ambivalent experiences regarding those reproductive options. We discuss the ethical implications of our empirical findings and hold that pursuing genetic desire is not necessarily the main moral reason why women freeze their eggs.

This paper examines how women accessing social egg freezing (SEF), medical egg freezing (MEF), and egg sharing (ESH) imagine becoming a mother (normative motherhood) in contrast to how they become a mother (reproductive trajectory). It uses data collection from 43 semi-structured in-depth interviews with French women who have had their eggs cryopreserved in France and abroad, five of whom have had children. It was found that most of the women interviewed associate motherhood with heterosexual coupledom, the nuclear family, and a normalized desire for biogenetic motherhood. Nevertheless, ontological disruptions caused by infertility, singlehood, or illness introduce the possibility that they will be unable to have children as expected, which leads them to imagine (and consider) both medical and non-medical ways of having a child. Women’s narrations of alternative paths toward motherhood describe a fragmentation of motherhood into genetic, biological, and social components, which are combined and hierarchized in unexpected ways. I argue that, although alternative reproductive trajectories might modify the kinship ties between the parties involved, they do not necessarily defy normative motherhood. To my knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted among French women undertaking egg freezing. It seeks to contribute to a growing corpus of empirical research that analyzes egg freezing and its links with motherhood. Second, it mobilizes an innovative approach by examining similarities between SEF, MEF, and ESH. Furthermore, it proposes that women who freeze their eggs for medical reasons or in exchange for an egg donation also inscribe their egg freezing procedure within a heteronormative, biogenetic ideal of motherhood, and a normalized desire for a nuclear family. Finally, it contributes to analyzing the decision-making processes of women who become a mother after egg freezing.