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Single Chinese woman loses last appeal in fight to freeze her eggs
The Guardian
|August 17, 2024
A Chinese woman who filed a groundbreaking lawsuit to win the right to freeze her eggs has lost her final appeal, exhausting the legal avenues in her fight to widen access to fertility treatment in China.
Beijing No 3 intermediate people's court ruled that Xu Zaozao's rights had not been violated when Beijing obstetrics and gynaecology hospital refused to freeze her eggs in 2018.
Chinese regulations stipulate that assisted reproductive technology is only for married couples with fertility issues. Xu, now 36, said the doctor had given her some friendly advice instead: hurry up, get married and have children now.
Instead, she sued the hospital. She argued that the denial of treatment violated her basic rights. On 6 August, nearly five years after she first filed her lawsuit, she lost her final appeal.
"Regardless of the outcome, I am proud of what we have been doing together," Xu said in a video posted on social media last week.
This story is from the August 17, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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