{"title":"公司提供非医疗性冷冻卵子作为员工福利是否符合道德规范?","authors":"Alejandro Espinosa-Herrera, Maria-Jose Pietrini-Sanchez","doi":"10.1111/bioe.13347","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>All over the world, many companies are including oocyte cryopreservation for nonmedical reasons, also popularly known as nonmedical egg freezing (NMEF), within their employee benefits packages. However, it is important to ask whether companies are ethically justified in offering NMEF as a benefit for their employees. The inclusion of NMEF within companies' employee benefits packages could be ethically justified in two ways. On the one hand, company-sponsored NMEF can serve as a strategy to mitigate or eliminate gender inequalities in the workplace, such as female underrepresentation in positions of authority and leadership and the so-called work/motherhood conflict. On the other hand, company-sponsored NMEF can be a means to expand women's reproductive autonomy by making egg freezing accessible to those women who are not able to afford it otherwise. This article calls into question these ethical justifications. We argue that by offering NMEF as an employee benefit, companies maintain current workplace inequalities and impose an option for women with multiple risks and externalities. Therefore, companies' offering of NMEF benefits cannot be ethically justified. Furthermore, we argue that companies that offer NMEF benefits incur fiduciary responsibilities related to the physiological, emotional, psychological, and financial costs of the use of company-sponsored NMEF.</p>","PeriodicalId":1,"journal":{"name":"Accounts of Chemical Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":16.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Are companies ethically justified in offering nonmedical egg freezing as an employee benefit?\",\"authors\":\"Alejandro Espinosa-Herrera, Maria-Jose Pietrini-Sanchez\",\"doi\":\"10.1111/bioe.13347\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>All over the world, many companies are including oocyte cryopreservation for nonmedical reasons, also popularly known as nonmedical egg freezing (NMEF), within their employee benefits packages. However, it is important to ask whether companies are ethically justified in offering NMEF as a benefit for their employees. The inclusion of NMEF within companies' employee benefits packages could be ethically justified in two ways. On the one hand, company-sponsored NMEF can serve as a strategy to mitigate or eliminate gender inequalities in the workplace, such as female underrepresentation in positions of authority and leadership and the so-called work/motherhood conflict. On the other hand, company-sponsored NMEF can be a means to expand women's reproductive autonomy by making egg freezing accessible to those women who are not able to afford it otherwise. This article calls into question these ethical justifications. We argue that by offering NMEF as an employee benefit, companies maintain current workplace inequalities and impose an option for women with multiple risks and externalities. Therefore, companies' offering of NMEF benefits cannot be ethically justified. Furthermore, we argue that companies that offer NMEF benefits incur fiduciary responsibilities related to the physiological, emotional, psychological, and financial costs of the use of company-sponsored NMEF.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":1,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Accounts of Chemical Research\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":16.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-08-24\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Accounts of Chemical Research\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"98\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13347\",\"RegionNum\":1,\"RegionCategory\":\"化学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accounts of Chemical Research","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13347","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Are companies ethically justified in offering nonmedical egg freezing as an employee benefit?
All over the world, many companies are including oocyte cryopreservation for nonmedical reasons, also popularly known as nonmedical egg freezing (NMEF), within their employee benefits packages. However, it is important to ask whether companies are ethically justified in offering NMEF as a benefit for their employees. The inclusion of NMEF within companies' employee benefits packages could be ethically justified in two ways. On the one hand, company-sponsored NMEF can serve as a strategy to mitigate or eliminate gender inequalities in the workplace, such as female underrepresentation in positions of authority and leadership and the so-called work/motherhood conflict. On the other hand, company-sponsored NMEF can be a means to expand women's reproductive autonomy by making egg freezing accessible to those women who are not able to afford it otherwise. This article calls into question these ethical justifications. We argue that by offering NMEF as an employee benefit, companies maintain current workplace inequalities and impose an option for women with multiple risks and externalities. Therefore, companies' offering of NMEF benefits cannot be ethically justified. Furthermore, we argue that companies that offer NMEF benefits incur fiduciary responsibilities related to the physiological, emotional, psychological, and financial costs of the use of company-sponsored NMEF.
期刊介绍:
Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance.
Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.