Chinese woman seeking to freeze her eggs makes final appeal in court

[May 09, 2023]  By Laurie Chen

BEIJING (Reuters) - An unmarried Chinese woman made a final appeal in a court on Tuesday in her bid to sue a hospital for violating her rights by refusing to freeze her eggs because she is single.

Teresa Xu, a 35-year-old freelance writer, lodged her complaint against the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in 2019 in a landmark case in China of a woman fighting for reproductive rights.

Xu's appeal comes as the attitude of authorities to giving unmarried women access to reproductive technologies has begun to soften as China grapples with a falling birth rate that has brought its first population drop in six decades.

"People have been paying lots of attention to the case, and this is very important for single women ... I think this has given people some hope, so I want to carry on," Xu told reporters outside the court in Beijing after the hearing.

She said she was cautiously optimistic about her case.

The verdict will not announced immediately due to the large volume of material presented to the court, Xu's lawyer said.

"If I get the verdict I've been hoping for, I'll act at once," Xu said, explaining that she would freeze her eggs at a hospital.

Teresa Xu speaks to the media outside the No. 3 Intermediate People's Court before a court hearing of her suit against a Beijing hospital for rejecting her request to freeze her eggs on the grounds that she is unmarried, in Beijing, China May 9, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo

It is difficult for unmarried women to get access to fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and egg freezing technologies due to a rule that women must be married.

But concerned about a rapidly ageing population, government's advisers proposed in March that single women should get be allowed the treatments.

Some private clinics in places including the southwestern province of Sichuan have already begun letting single women get IVF treatment.

Liberalising fertility treatments could unleash huge demand in what is already the world's biggest market, likely putting a strain on limited services, investors and industry executives say.

(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Sonali Paul, Robert Birsel)

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