A single Chinese woman began a legal battle on appeal on Tuesday, May 9 to obtain the right to have her eggs frozen, a service currently only reserved for married women in her country.
The approach of Xu Zaozao, 35, is widely followed in China because women’s rights and the alarming drop in the birth rate are the subject of increasing media attention. The young woman says she wants to freeze her eggs to give herself the possibility of having a child alone if she cannot find a partner to procreate.
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“I hope more people will recognize the fact that there is a whole diversity of single women”said Xu Zaozao before the Beijing court where the appeal trial opened on Tuesday. “They have the right to reproductive autonomy and to make decisions about their own bodies”she pointed out in front of a swarm of journalists.
Declining population and very low fertility rate
In 2018, Xu Zaozao wanted to have his eggs frozen by a Beijing hospital, a service reserved only for married couples suffering from infertility. Faced with the refusal of this establishment, she had filed a complaint against the latter but had lost in 2022 at first instance.
However, the context has since changed. China recorded the first decline in its population in six decades last year, against a backdrop of very low fertility rates (1.15 children per woman) and the government is now strongly encouraging the Chinese to procreate.
The province of Sichuan (southwest) for example announced in January to allow single people to register their child. A revolution because, elsewhere in China, marriage remains an essential prerequisite.
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“This case has a great impact on society”
This opening “gives me hope” as for a greater consideration of the rights of women, explained this Tuesday Xu Zaozao. “I know very well that we don’t have such a great chance of winning because this case has a great impact on society”she admitted.
“But it provokes public debate and single women have been able to speak out openly.”
Judgment will be announced at a later date. With economic development, many financially independent Chinese women marry later, or even do not want to have children, despite the strong family pressure they experience after 30 years to marry and procreate.
