BEIJING: A single Chinese woman on Tuesday began an appeal in her legal battle for the right to freeze her eggs, a procedure only available in China to married couples.

Xu Zaozao took legal action in 2019 after a Beijing hospital refused to freeze her eggs but a Beijing court dismissed her case in July 2022. Her case is widely followed in China, where women’s rights have become an increasingly prominent issue and the falling birthrate is of growing concern. Xu says she wants to freeze her eggs to give herself the option of having a child alone if she cannot find a partner.

“I hope more people will recognise the fact that there is a whole diversity of single women,” Xu told the Beijing court where the appeal trial opened on Tuesday.

“They have the right to have autonomy in matters of reproduction and to make decisions concerning their own bodies,” she told journalists.

Since Xu lost her initial case in 2022 a lot has 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 now strongly encourages people to have children.

In a revolutionary move, the southwest province of Sichuan in January said it would allow single people to register their child, while elsewhere in China it is an option still only available to married people.

This opening “gives me hope” for greater consideration of women’s rights, Xu said.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2023