Prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion

A challenge to practice and policy

Bibliographic Data

ID11025082
AuthorsAdrienne Asch (Wellesley College, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume89
Issue11
Pages1649-1657
Publication date1999-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
PublisherAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.89.11.1649
PMID10553384
OpenAlexW2058607431
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited24

Professionals should reexamine negative assumptions about the quality of life with prenatally detectable impairments and should reform clinical practice and public policy to improve informed decision making and genuine reproductive choice. Current data on children and families affected by disabilities indicate that disability does not preclude a satisfying life. Many problems attributed to the existence of a disability actually stem from inadequate social arrangements that public health professionals should work to change. This article assumes a pro-choice perspective but suggests that unreflective uses of prenatal testing could diminish, rather than expand, women's choices. This critique challenges the view of disability that lies behind the social endorsement of such testing and the conviction that women will or should end their pregnancies if they discover that the fetus has a disabling trait

Abortion · Conviction · Eugenics · Medical model of disability · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Pregnancy · Psychiatry · Public policy · Quality of life (healthcare) · Child and Adolescent Health · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Prenatal Screening and Diagnostics · Psychology