This article describes the relatively new technology of freezing human eggs and examines whether egg freezing, specifically when it is used by healthy women as 'insurance' against age-related infertility, is a legitimate exercise of reproductive autonomy. Although egg freezing has the potential to expand women's reproductive options and thus may represent a breakthrough for reproductive autonomy, I argue that without adequate information about likely outcomes and risks, women may be choosing to freeze their eggs in a commercially exploitative context, thus (...) undermining rather than expanding reproductive autonomy. (shrink)

Reproductive gift relationships must be seen in their totality, not just as helping someone have a child. Noncommercial surrogacy cannot be treated as a mere act of altruism—any valorizing of altruistic surrogacy and reproductive gift‐giving must be assessed within the wider context of women's political inequality.