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Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights
![]() 392 pp., 6 x 9 Hardcover ISBN: 9780878408030 (0878408037) 392 pp., 6 x 9 Paperback ISBN: 9780878408047 (0878408045) September 2000 LC: 00-026361 Hastings Center Studies in Ethics series EXPLORE THIS TITLE DescriptionTable of Contents Reviews |
Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights
Erik Parens and Adrienne Asch, Editors
As prenatal tests proliferate, the medical and broader communities perceive that such testing is a logical extension of good prenatal care—it helps parents have healthy babies. But prenatal tests have been criticized by the disability rights community, which contends that advances in science should be directed at improving their lives, not preventing them. Used primarily to decide to abort a fetus that would have been born with mental or physical impairments, prenatal tests arguably reinforce discrimination against and misconceptions about people with disabilities.
In these essays, people on both sides of the issue engage in an honest and occasionally painful debate about prenatal testing and selective abortion. The contributors include both people who live with and people who theorize about disabilities, scholars from the social sciences and humanities, medical geneticists, genetic counselors, physicians, and lawyers. Although the essayists don't arrive at a consensus over the disability community's objections to prenatal testing and its consequences, they do offer recommendations for ameliorating some of the problems associated with the practice. Erik Parens is the associate for philosophical studies at The Hastings Center, Garrison, New York. Adrienne Asch is the Henry L. Luce Professor of Biology, Ethics and Human Reproduction at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Gregory E. Kaebnick and Daniel Callahan, Series Editors
Reviews
"Essential reading for anyone working in perinatal medicine and genetic counseling."—Health Progress Table of Contents Introduction Erik Parens and Adrienne Asch Part One: Overview and Context of the Project The Disability Rights Critique of Prenatal Genetic Testing: Reflections and Recommendations Erik Parens and Adrienne Asch The Current State of Prenatal Genetic Testing in the United States Cynthia M. Powell Part Two: Parenthood, Disability, and Prenatal Testing Somewhere a Mockingbird Deborah Kent Why I Had Amniocentesis Mary Ann Baily The Experience of Disability in Families; A Synthesis of Research and Parent Narratives Philip M. Ferguson, Alan Gartner, and Dorothy K. Lipsky Ways to Limit Prenatal Testing William Ruddick Disability, Prenatal Testing, and Selective Abortion Bonnie Steinbock Technology and the Genetic Imaginary: Prenatal Testing and the construction of Disability Bruce Jennings Part Three: The Messages and Meanings of Prenatal Genetic Testing Why Members of the Disability Community Oppose Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion Marsha Saxton On the Expressivity and Ethics of Selective Abortion for Disability: Conversations with My Son Eva Feder Kittay with Leo Kittay The Meaning of the Act: Reflections on the Expressive Force of Reproductive Decision Making and Policies James Lindemann Nelson Assessing the Expressive Character of Prenatal Testing: The Choices Made or the Choices Made Available Nancy Press Why I Haven't Changed My Mind about Prenatal Diagnosis: Reflections and Refinements Adrienne Asch Part Four: Making Policies, Delivering Services Drawing Lines: Notes for Policymakers Dorothy C. Wertz Line Drawing: Developing Professional Standards for Prenatal Diagnostic Services Jeffrey R. Botkin Prenatal Genetic Testing and the Courts Pilar N. Ossorio Reflections from the Trenches: One Doctor's Encounter with Disability Rights Arguments Steven J. Ralston What Difference the Disability Community Arguments Should Make for the Delivery of Prenatal Genetic Information Barbara Bowles Biesecker and Lori Hamby Contributors Index |