News

It is good news that the age limit for egg donors will be raised to 37 years, in line with the change in age limit for elective egg freezing ( ). However, many single women may be disappointed that they cannot use their frozen eggs to have a baby without being legally married. One of the reasons for single women freezing their eggs is to ensure that they can still have babies at a later age when they find their life partners. Although most of these women would prefer to be married and raise the child with their husbands, there may be circumstances where they are not able to marry but still wish to be mothers. The Government should consider allowing these single women to use their frozen eggs to have a baby through in-vitro fertilisation. Strict suitability criteria could be put in place to ensure that prospective single mothers are mentally, physically and financially sound to raise children by themselves. As businessman Ho Kwon Ping pointed out, the Government needs to have a paradigm shift in thinking to do something more drastic to increase the total fertility rate ( ). Allowing single women to use their frozen eggs to have children would help to increase Singapore’s population. As more women remain single, opportunities for more babies would be lost if the prohibition stays.