A hearing on China's first legal case over the rights of unmarried women to access egg-freezing services adjourned with no decision announced on December 23, according to the Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court, which is handling the case.
An unmarried woman in Beijing, surnamed Xu, recently filed a lawsuit against the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Capital Medical University for rejecting her request to have her eggs harvested and frozen on the grounds that she was unable to present a marriage license, according to a statement released by the court on Monday.
Under the regulation that governs the use of assisted reproductive technology in China, service providers are barred from offering such fertility services, including egg-freezing, to unmarried women.
The regulation, published by the country's top health authority, formerly known as the Ministry of Health, saw its latest revision in 2003.
The case is still pending, the court said.
Xu, 31, soon completed a series of health checkups that cleared her for the upcoming procedures, but she was eventually rejected by the hospital for failing to prove her marital status.
Yu Liying, the attorney representing Xu, said the case was initially brought up as a dispute over medical contracts, which was turned down by multiple courts.
The case was later modified as a lawsuit against the hospital for violating gender equality as stated in the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and infringing on the personality rights of Xu. In September, the court in Beijing's Chaoyang district accepted the case.
Source: China Daily
