The "Work and Family" section of
The Wall Street Journal
recently had an essay describing why some single women choose to freeze their eggs. Mind you - the essay was about
single
women.Evidently, only 2-4% of frozen eggs once thawed yield live births. Also, it's not yet clear whether babies born from such eggs will face any long-term health problems. So it would seem that many women risk making important life decisions (like staying with a career long in life) based on false assumptions that their fertility is secure.The procedure (which ranges from about $9,000 to $14,000) has been used as a way to preserve fertility for cancer patients facing treatments likely to render them sterile. This is a benevolent use of this budding technology. However, most of the interest seems to come from women delaying marriage and child-bearing because they are ferociously career-oriented and/or can't find or keep a good man. I would like to send them each a copy of my book, "
The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands
," because it is cheaper and more to the point.These women want to "make a close family" (never mind that there would be no Daddy in this "close" family), or give their parents the "gift" of a grandchild (making a child a present). Nowhere in the article did the notion of a single woman making a baby for herself point out that this may not be in the best interest of the child! I guess that doesn't matter.
