資助女性員工冷凍和儲存卵子 硅谷推動"懷孕革命"

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.

臉書（Facebook）和蘋果（Apple）推出了一項新福利——資助女性員工冷凍和儲存卵子，希望藉此提升它們對女性員工和應聘者的吸引力。儘管並非所有女性都會因爲有了資助而決定推遲懷孕生子，但這項福利將受到許多女性的歡迎，因爲它擴大了她們的人生選擇範圍。這兩家公司早因推出有益於員工家庭生活的福利政策而聞名。

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.

但這項政策確實引發了複雜的道德問題。比如說，考慮到蘋果對產品和軟件升級換代的不懈追求，蘋果冷凍的卵子經過幾年的新產品發佈之後能否仍和母體兼容？Facebook的員工是不是得在Facebook上跟她的冷凍卵子成爲“好友”，並把它們的照片貼出來？這會改善和增進她們與自己的冷凍卵子——或者越來越熟悉的冰箱貼——之間的母子關係。

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.

不過，這只不過是些小難題，就跟這項福利本身一樣，聰明的女性能夠自己解答或決定是否接受。更大的問題在於，考慮到硅谷致力於加快技術進步、以解決世界的問題，卵子冷凍或許很快將被視爲應該淘汰的技術。英國《金融時報》大致蒐羅了一下其他一些能夠顛覆生育方式的實驗性科技。

A notable omission from the list of businesses offering ex-utero benefits is Google but fans of the search giant should not fear its entry into the process. Some of its most brilliant engineers, working at the pioneering Google Eggs laboratory, will shortly unveil a range of solutions designed to slow and eventually erase the biological clock. The first project goes beyond freezing and storage to tackle some of the underlying issues.

引人注目的是，我們沒有在提供取卵福利的企業名單上看到谷歌(Google)的名字，但粉絲們不必擔心谷歌會置身事外。谷歌的一些最有才華的工程師正在開創性的谷歌卵子(Google Eggs)實驗室裏工作，他們將很快公佈一系列旨在延長生育年齡、並最終消除生育年齡限制的解決方案。該實驗室的第一個項目超越了卵子冷凍和儲存，着眼於解決一些根本性問題。

One long-term solution being secretly studied by Google labs is Driverless Eggs. Silicon Valley has long been frustrated by a number of inefficiencies in the fertilisation process, including the monthly product cycle which ties women (and men) down to a small window of opportunity and wastes three weeks in every four to downtime. Given in-vitro fertilisation advances, Google feels it may be time to take the next step – full-term in-vitro pregnancy. Gestation outside the womb would free female staff from inefficiencies such as morning sickness, stretch marks, early maternity leave and all those tiresome ultrasounds.

谷歌實驗室正在祕密研究的一種長期解決方案是“無母卵子”(Driverless Eggs)。長期以來，硅谷對生育過程中的幾個低效之處感到苦惱，其中包括女性每月只排卵一次——這將女性（以及男性）的生育機會限制在一個很小的時間窗口，每4周裏只有1周能夠孕育新生命，其餘3周都浪費了。鑑於試管受精技術已經取得一些進展，谷歌覺得現在或許是時候走出下一步，嘗試完全的試管妊娠了。在人體子宮外孕育生命，能夠讓女性員工免除晨吐、妊娠紋、產假以及超聲波檢查等無意義的煩惱。

Google has also honed in on another reason why women may want egg freezing – namely that they have not yet found the right partner. Google Dadsense may be the answer. It goes beyond dating apps such as Tinder or , using a new SpermMatch algorithm to search for suitable fathers; the most desirable partner being, obviously, a well-paid technologist. Male Googlers will be incentivised to offer their quality genes to female colleagues, something that does happen now, but only at the weekly barbecues and volleyball matches and is too low-tech to be a sustainable population solution.

谷歌還着眼於女性可能希望冷凍卵子的另一個原因，即她們尚未找到合適的伴侶。Google Dadsense可能會解決這個問題。它超越了Tinder或等交友應用，利用新的SpermMatch算法尋找合適的父親；顯然，最理想的伴侶是收入頗豐的技術專家。谷歌男員工將被鼓勵與女同事結合，這種情況現在已經出現，但僅限於每週的燒烤和排球比賽上，而且技術含量很低，無法成爲一種可持續的人口解決方案。

Obviously mindful of the concerns around gene tampering, there are no plans at this stage to tamper with the genetic make-up of fertilised eggs, although they may be screened for predispositions towards serious disease or the Republican party.

顯然，由於顧慮到圍繞基因改變的種種擔憂，目前還沒有人計劃改變受精卵的基因構成，不過，受精卵可能受到篩查，以查出是否有患上嚴重疾病或成爲共和黨的傾向。

Tech companies will also look to build greater connectivity with the frozen ovum. The technology is still in its infancy but few doubt that once freezing has become widespread, the internet of eggs will happen.

科技公司還將研究如何與冷凍卵子建立更密切的互聯。這項技術尚處在初期，但幾乎無人質疑這點：一旦冷凍技術普及，卵子互聯網將出現。

Driverless babies and toddlers may still be some way off. One Googler said Aldous Huxley’s utopian vision remained a fond and distant dream.

通過自動化程序產下嬰兒和撫育幼兒可能尚需時日。谷歌一名員工表示，阿道斯•赫胥黎(Aldous Huxley)的烏托邦遠景仍是一個美好但遙遠的夢。

Banks are also looking at driverless eggs, but are examining whether bonuses could be used to incentivise the ovum towards self-reliance.

銀行也在關注“無母卵子”，但它們正在考察能否通過設立獎金來鼓勵讓卵子自動受精的研究。

Of course different companies will come up with alternative solutions. Microsoft is planning to offer the perk but only to women who don’t ask for it as it will be delivered by karma. Ebay is modelling Eggschange – a clearing house for surplus ova.

當然，不同的公司將提出不同的解決方案。微軟(Microsoft)也在計劃提供冷凍卵子福利，但只提供給那些不主動要求的女性，因爲它是按“緣分”發放。Ebay正打造“卵子交易所”(Eggschange)，一個針對多餘卵子的清算機構。

Amazon, meanwhile, is taking a different tack, focusing more on the logistics of gestation. Jeff Bezos sees the nine-month shipping rule as ripe for technological disruption and has committed the company to same-day delivery. He is also experimenting with drone delivery and recently purchased several thousand delivery drones, refitted to resemble storks.

與此同時，亞馬遜(Amazon)則在採行不同的路線，該公司更關注懷孕物流。傑夫•貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)認爲在技術上打破9個月妊娠期規律的時機已經成熟，他承諾亞馬遜將推出“當日送達”快遞服務。他還在試驗無人機送貨，他最近收購了數千架送貨無人機，把它們重新改裝成了類似鸛鳥（在西方，鸛鳥有送子之意）的樣子。