Prenatal Screening, Autonomy and Reasons: The Relationship Between the Law of Abortion and Wrongful Birth
Autor: | Rosamund Scott |
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Rok vydání: | 2003 |
Předmět: |
Parents
Legislation Medical media_common.quotation_subject Wrongful Life Directive Counseling Medicine (miscellaneous) Genetic Counseling Context (language use) Disclosure Commission Abortion Choice Behavior Genetic engineering Pregnancy Physicians Prenatal Diagnosis medicine Civil Rights Humans Disabled Persons media_common Jurisprudence Informed Consent Reproductive Rights Genetic Diseases Inborn Liability Legal Prenatal Care medicine.disease United States Wrongful birth Test (assessment) England Law Abortion Legal Personal Autonomy Female Pregnant Women Psychology Supreme Court Decisions Abortion Eugenic Conscience Autonomy |
Zdroj: | Medical Law Review. 11:265-325 |
ISSN: | 1464-3790 0967-0742 |
Popis: | Prenatal screening and diagnosis concern the provision of information about the health or condition of a developing fetus to a pregnant woman or couple. One implication of receiving this information is that she, or they, may consider whether to continue a pregnancy in which the fetus’s health or condition appears or is in some way compromised. Unlike pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, which has recently been the subject of a public consultation exercise and a report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and Human Genetics Commission (HGC), the issue of prenatal screening and diagnosis has, unfortunately, never received public appraisal. Yet there has been a burgeoning of philosophical, sociological and legal interest in this area. In part this has been fueled by concerns about developments in the relevant genetic technology, particularly the ability to screen and test for an increasingly wide range of sometimes not very significant conditions or features. People with disabilities have also voiced concerns, especially about the routine nature of prenatal screening and the implications for them of its widespread use. Numerous issues arise in the light of such concerns. This article focuses on one — the locus and extent of legal decision-making power as regards the disabled fetus. It does this by exploring how the relationship between the law of abortion and that of wrongful birth affects the scope of a pregnant woman’s decision-making abilities in this context. The connecting thread here is that a woman to whom the issue of fetal disability is important must be informed of the health or condition of the fetus if she is meaningfully to exercise whatever legal option she has in deciding whether to continue a given pregnancy. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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