Facebook and Apple are hoping to boost their appeal to female staff and applicants with the new perk of financial assistance in freezing eggs and storing them for future use. While not all women are convinced by financial incentives to delay pregnancy, the perk, from companies with a proven record of family-friendly benefits, will be welcomed by many as expanding their life choices.
But the offer does raise complex moral issues. For example, given Apple’s ferocious commitment to ever-improving devices and software updates, will an Apple-frozen egg still be compatible with its mother after a couple of years of new product releases? Should a Facebook employee friend her frozen eggs and post pictures of them on her news feed? This will improve and extend maternal bonding with frozen eggs, or fridge magnets as they will be known.
But these are mere conundrums and, like the perk itself, something a smart woman can decide on for herself. The bigger issue is that, given Silicon Valley’s commitment to fast technological advance to solve the world’s problems, egg-freezing may soon seem decidedly last century. The Financial Times has given itself a sneak peak at the other experimental technologies coming down the track to revolutionise parenthood.