World News for Students of English

22-10-2014 15:00

Tech giants Apple and Facebook are offering to help women employees put off pregnancy later in life by having their eggs frozen.

Facebook has been offering the service for its employees in the US since the start of this year and Apple will follow suit from January 2015.

Apple will pay both full and part time employees up to $20,000, that’s around £12,500 for the procedure, and storage costs for female eggs.

The company said in a statement they want to empower their female employees to do the best work of their lives, as they care for loved ones and raise families. And fertility doctors agree this is the right thing to do.

“So egg freezing offers the opportunity to delay fertility until later in life and benefit from a younger egg. They learn about their fertility. I think that’s one of the most important benefits. Even just talking to the doctor about it probably allows them to understand their fertility better. It’s not dangerous, it doesn’t affect future fertility, but the cost is high. So, if one lowers or eliminates that one barrier, I think we have a very positive track forward.”

But others have suggested the companies should instead focus on offering more flexibility and support for new parents.

Difficult words: tech giant (a huge technology company), put off (to do something later), egg (this is part of the fetus before it becomes a baby), to follow suit (to do the same things) fertility (ability to have babies), eliminate (remove), barrier (wall).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com