IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v253y2020ics0277953620301957.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Abrahamic traditions and egg freezing: Religious Women's experiences in local moral worlds

Author

Listed:
  • Inhorn, Marcia C.
  • Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna
  • Vale, Mira D.
  • Patrizio, Pasquale

Abstract

In this article, we elucidate how elective egg freezing (EEF) has been received within the three Abrahamic traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and how these religion-specific standpoints have affected the EEF experiences of women who self-identify as religiously observant. Through an analysis of religious women's narratives, the study explores the “local moral worlds” of religious women who chose to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons. It draws on ethnographic interviews with 14 women in the United States and Israel who had completed at least one EEF cycle, and who were part of a large, binational study that interviewed, between 2014 and 2016, 150 women who pursued EEF. These religious women, who were all highly educated, faced a particular challenge in finding appropriate marriage partners. Feeling pressured but still hopeful to marry and create large families, the women used EEF to extend their reproductive timelines and reduce their anxieties. As the study showed, the women reinterpreted or reconciled religious restrictions on the use of EEF in various ways, believing that their ultimate pursuit of religiously sanctioned reproduction justified the means. This study, which is the first to compare Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women's experiences of EEF, illustrates how this novel technology is now shaping the local moral worlds of religious women.

Suggested Citation

  • Inhorn, Marcia C. & Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna & Vale, Mira D. & Patrizio, Pasquale, 2020. "Abrahamic traditions and egg freezing: Religious Women's experiences in local moral worlds," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:253:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301957
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112976
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620301957
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112976?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna, 2009. "The politics of 'The Natural Family' in Israel: State policy and kinship ideologies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1018-1024, October.
    2. Kylie Baldwin, 2017. "‘I Suppose I Think to Myself, That's the Best Way to Be a Mother’: How Ideologies of Parenthood Shape Women's Use of Social Egg Freezing Technology," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 22(2), pages 20-34, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Stoicescu & Cosima RughiniÈ™, 2022. "Swiping as a Single Mom: A First Look at the Experiences of Single Mothers Who Use Tinder," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 964-983, December.
    2. Thorsten Janus, 2013. "The political economy of fertility," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 493-505, June.
    3. Frumkin, Ayala & Raz, Aviad E. & Plesser-Duvdevani, Morasha & Lieberman, Sari, 2011. ""The Most Important Test You’ll Ever Take"?: Attitudes toward confidential carrier matching and open individual testing among modern-religious Jews in Israel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(12), pages 1741-1747.
    4. Maya Tsfati & Dorit Segal-Engelchin, 2022. "The Social Experiences of Single Gay Fathers in Israel: An Intersectional Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:253:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301957. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.