纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英单身女性生育权之争中国法院裁定未婚女性无权冻卵

Faced with a shrinking population, China’s top leadership has tried everything to get women to have more babies. Everything, it turns out, except allowing unmarried women to freeze their eggs.

面对人口减少的问题，中国最高领导层想尽一切办法让女性多生孩子。结果，一切办法并不包括未婚女性冷冻卵子。

A Beijing court this week chose to uphold a longstanding rule that only married women may use the procedure. Rights activists say the rule is unfair because it excludes single women from a reproductive measure that gives them the option to put off childbirth.

本周，北京一家法院决定维持长期以来的规定，只有已婚女性才能使用这种手段。人权活动人士表示，这项规定是不公平的，因为它将单身女性排除在这项可让她们推迟生育的生殖措施之外。

The ruling centers on a lawsuit filed by Teresa Xu, against an obstetrics hospital after a doctor denied her access to egg freezing services and instead told her that she should get married and have children quickly.

该裁决源于徐枣枣对一家妇产医院提起的诉讼，该医院的一名医生拒绝让她获得卵子冷冻服务，告诉她应该尽快结婚生子。

On Wednesday, Ms. Xu said the Chaoyang Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing had rejected her lawsuit, exhausting her legal options in a six-year battle for reproductive rights. The court had argued that her rights were not violated.

周三，徐枣枣表示，北京市朝阳区中级人民法院驳回了她的诉讼，这意味着她这场长达六年的生育权斗争已经穷尽所有法律手段。法院认为她的权利没有受到侵犯。

In a livestream video, Ms. Xu, 36, a freelance writer in Guangzhou, said she wasn’t surprised by the court’s decision. “I was mentally prepared for it,” she said in the video that was later posted to her social media account. “This result wasn’t all that unexpected.”

36岁的徐枣枣是广州一名自由撰稿人，她在一段直播视频中表示，她对法院的判决并不感到意外。“我做好了心理准备，”她在随后发布在社交媒体账户上的视频里说。“这个结果也算是在意料之中。”

In China, the ruling Communist Party continues to have a large say over who may have children, and how many. For years, it allowed families to have only one child. As births slowed significantly, threatening growth, officials loosened the one-child policy to allow for two children and then three.

在中国，执政的共产党仍然对谁可以生孩子、生多少孩子有很大的发言权。多年来，中国只允许每个家庭生一个孩子。随着出生率大幅下降，威胁到经济增长，官员们放宽了独生子女政策，允许生育两个孩子，后来又允许生育三个孩子。

Most hospitals in China require women to be married before freezing their eggs. Single women who are pregnant are regularly denied access to public health care as well as benefits like maternity leave. And children born to single parents struggle to get social benefits such as education and medical insurance.

中国的大多数医院要求冷冻卵子的女性为已婚。怀孕的单身女性经常得不到公共保健服务以及产假等福利。出生在单亲家庭的子女很难获得教育和医疗保险等社会福利。

Yet the reasons for Ms. Xu’s decision to freeze her eggs are ones shared by many young Chinese women: She wanted to have a baby at some point, but she wanted to work and save money first, for her future.

然而，徐枣枣决定冷冻卵子的原因和许多中国年轻女性一样：她想在某个时候要个孩子，但她想先工作，为自己的未来存钱。

China’s ban on access to reproductive treatments for single women has forced many women who have the financial means and the determination to travel overseas and spend tens of thousands of dollars to get their eggs frozen in countries like Thailand and Malaysia.

中国禁止单身女性接受生殖治疗，这迫使许多有经济能力和决心的女性前往海外，花费数万美元在泰国和马来西亚等国家冷冻卵子。

On the surface, the desires of Ms. Xu and other young women would seem to fit with Beijing’s own goals. Urgently trying to address a declining population, Chinese officials have tried doling out cash and subsidies as incentives for families to have more children, making in vitro fertilization and other reproductive services more widely affordable.

从表面上看，徐枣枣和其他年轻女性的愿望似乎符合北京的目标。为了紧急解决人口下降的问题，中国官员试图发放现金和补贴，作为鼓励家庭生育更多孩子的激励措施，让更多人能负担得起体外受精和其他生育服务。

Nevertheless, its birthrate remains historically low — and continues to fall. Many young Chinese women say they prefer to be alone. Even people who are in a relationship are forgoing marriage and children, some because of uncertainty about the country’s prospects as its growth slows. The number of marriages in the first half of this year dropped to the lowest level in a decade, according to official data released this week.

尽管如此，中国的出生率仍然处于历史低位，而且还在继续下降。许多年轻的中国女性表示她们更倾向于独自生活。即使是有伴侣的人也开始放弃婚姻和孩子，其中一些人是因为经济增长放缓对国家前景的不确定性。本周公布的官方数据显示，今年上半年的结婚人数降至十年来的最低水平。

Ms. Xu, an advocate of women’s rights, has argued that the rules around egg freezing are sexist. Men can choose to freeze their sperm with no conditions. In addition to being married, women seeking to freeze their eggs must show that they have a license to give birth to a child. They must promise not to exceed the number of children they are allowed to have, and show proof they are either infertile or are undergoing treatment that could make it more difficult for them to conceive.

徐枣枣是一名女权倡导者，她认为有关卵子冷冻的规定是性别歧视。男性可以选择冷冻精子，而不会有任何条件。除了已婚之外，想要冷冻卵子的女性还必须证明自己有生育许可证。她们必须承诺，生育孩子的数量不超过允许范围，并且提供证明，表明自己不孕或正在接受可能影响受孕的治疗。

In its ruling, the Beijing court said that the decision by the hospital to deny Ms. Xu egg freezing services had complied with current rules and was “consistent with laws and regulations as well as common sense.” But the court also left room for future changes that could be made to China’s fertility policy and said that “when conditions are met, Ms. Xu may resolve the relevant disputes separately.”

北京法院在判决书中表示，医院拒绝为徐枣枣提供冷冻卵子服务的决定符合现行规定，“符合法律法规和常识”。但法院也为未来可能对中国生育政策做出的改变留下了空间，表示“待条件具备后，徐枣枣与相关医疗机构可另行解决相应争议”。

In her livestream on Wednesday night, Ms. Xu vowed to continue to fight for the reproductive rights of single women, saying the ruling this week was “not the end,” adding that she would “actively formulate the next strategy.”

在周三晚上的直播中，徐枣枣发誓要继续为单身女性的生育权而战，她说本周的裁决“不是结束”，并补充说她将“积极制定下一步的策略”。

As she signed off from her livestream, she added: “We have a long road ahead of us.”

在结束直播时，她说：“我们还有很长的路要走。”