Abstract
Oocyte cryopreservation (i.e., egg freezing) is one of the newest forms of assisted reproduction and is increasingly being used primarily by two groups of women: (1) young cancer patients at risk of losing their fertility through cytotoxic chemotherapy (i.e., medical egg freezing); and (2) single professionals in their late 30s who are facing age-related fertility decline in the absence of reproductive partners (i.e., elective egg freezing). Based on a binational ethnographic study, this article examines the significance of egg freezing among Jewish women in Israel and the United States. As they face the Jewish maternal imperative, these women are turning to egg freezing to relieve both medical and marital uncertainties. In both secular and religious Jewish contexts, egg freezing is now becoming naturalized as acceptable and desirable precisely because it cryopreserves Jewish motherhood, keeping reproductive options open for Jewish women, and serving as a protective self-preservation technology within their pronatalist social environments.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 346-363 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Medical Anthropology Quarterly |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:. The authors would like to thank Jennifer DeChello, Jeannine Estrada, Rose Keimig, Sandee Murray, Tasha Newsome, and Ruoxi Yu for various forms of editorial, study recruitment, and transcription assistance. The authors are also grateful for the study support provided by our colleagues Martha Dirnfeld, Arik Kahane, Dror Meirow, Hila Raanani, and Daniel Seidman in Israel, and Joseph Doyle, Norbert Gleicher, and Lynn Westphal in the United States. This study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, BCS-1356136, PI Marcia C. Inhorn and Co-PI Pasquale Patrizio.
Funding Information:
. The authors would like to thank Jennifer DeChello, Jeannine Estrada, Rose Keimig, Sandee Murray, Tasha Newsome, and Ruoxi Yu for various forms of editorial, study recruitment, and transcription assistance. The authors are also grateful for the study support provided by our colleagues Martha Dirnfeld, Arik Kahane, Dror Meirow, Hila Raanani, and Daniel Seidman in Israel, and Joseph Doyle, Norbert Gleicher, and Lynn Westphal in the United States. This study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, BCS‐1356136, PI Marcia C. Inhorn and Co‐PI Pasquale Patrizio. Acknowledgments
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the American Anthropological Association
Keywords
- Jewish
- cancer
- egg freezing
- fertility
- motherhood
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology