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Egg freezing has led to heated debates in healthcare policy and bioethics. A crucial issue in this context concerns the distinction between "medical" and "social" egg freezing (MEF and SEF)—contrasting objections to bio-medicalization with claims for oversimplification. Yet such categorization remains a criterion for regulation. This paper aims to explore the "regulatory boundary-work" around the "medical"–"social" distinction in different egg freezing regulations. Based on systematic documents' analysis we present a cross-national comparison of the way the "medical"–"social" differentiation finds expression in regulatory frameworks in Austria, Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands. Findings are organized along two emerging themes: (1) the definition of MEF and its distinctiveness—highlighting regulatory differences in the clarity of the definition and in the medical indications used for creating it (less clear in Austria and Germany, detailed in Israel and the Netherlands); and (2) hierarchy of medical over social motivations reflected in usage and funding regulations. Blurred demarcation lines between "medical" and "social" are further discussed as representing a paradoxical inclusion of SEF while offering new insights into the complexity and normativity of this distinction. Finally, we draw conclusions for policymaking and the bioethical debate, also concerning the related cryopolitical aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the intersection of bodies, borders, and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in Israel/Palestine. By turning to Palestinian women's experiences in Israeli hospitals, the case of sperm smuggling in the West Bank, and Israeli medical staff's perception of the fertility clinic, this article examines reproductive border-crossings. Israel's fertility economy is thriving and the country is among the most liberal states worldwide regarding the regulation, implementation, and subsidization of ART. However, Israel's pronatalism is best described as selective and stratified. As a function of settler colonialism, it mainly targets Jewish citizens of Israel, which results in a politicization of Palestinian and Israeli bodies and populations. Drawing on fifty in-depth interviews with Palestinian women and medical staff in Israeli fertility clinics conducted in Israel/Palestine between 2016 and 2019, this article provides a spatial analysis of assisted reproduction, drawing out continuities between past and present technologies of power in medical space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]