Frozen Eggs
By Tom Ashbrook,
NPR On Point
| 10. 26. 2012
[With CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]
Women freezing their eggs against future infertility – or, as a lifestyle choice. We’ll look at the science and its limits.
For most of history, when women were out of eggs they were out of luck when it came to reproducing, to bearing children. Then came the freezing of human eggs. Formally for women facing fertility-damaging medical treatment. For couples in fertility treatment.
But also, it turned out, for women getting older who just weren’t ready pregnancy. Didn’t have the right partner, the right job, the right circumstances. So they’d freeze some eggs. For when the time came.
This hour, On Point: women freezing their eggs against future infertility. How far does this go?
Guests
Samantha Pfeifer, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Marcy Darnovsky, associate executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society.
Jennifer Hayes, a woman who has frozen her eggs.
From Tom’s Reading List
Wall Street Journal “There is growing evidence suggesting that freezing an embryo after fertilization and thawing it for use in the woman’s next...
Related Articles
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 06.04.2026
Scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics.
The prospect has fueled controversy for years. On the one hand, the...
By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026
"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of the century." This is how Lucas Harrington explained the goal of his company Preventive: to create genetically modified babies. Trying...
By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026
This is the 15th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. You can read the first part here. The series...
By Sofia Resnick, Stateline | 05.20.2026
An anti-abortion group last month sued seven Utah fertility clinics, claiming their disposal of embryos as part of the in vitro fertilization process violates the state’s wrongful death law.
The ministry Voice for the Voiceless believes it has a strong...