A burden from birth?: Non-invasive prenatal testing and the stigmatization of people with disabilities
The notion of being a burden to others is mostly discussed in the context of care-intensive diseases or end-of-life decisions. But the notion is also crucial in decision-making at the beginning of life, namely regarding prenatal testing. Ever more sophisticated testing methods, especially non-invasi...
| VerfasserInnen: | ; |
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Lade...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2019]
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| In: |
Bioethics
Jahr: 2019, Band: 33, Heft: 1, Seiten: 91-97 |
| IxTheo Notationen: | NBE Anthropologie NCH Medizinische Ethik |
| weitere Schlagwörter: | B
reproductive autonomy
B non-invasive prenatal testing B Bioethics B Eugenics B disability rights B NIPT |
| Online Zugang: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Zusammenfassung: | The notion of being a burden to others is mostly discussed in the context of care-intensive diseases or end-of-life decisions. But the notion is also crucial in decision-making at the beginning of life, namely regarding prenatal testing. Ever more sophisticated testing methods, especially non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), allow the detection of genetic traits in the unborn child that may cause disabilities. A positive result often influences the decision of the pregnant women towards a termination of the pregnancy. Thus, critics claim that these testing methods send a negative message to people with disabilities. At the core of this is what we call the burden assumption. This assumption claims that children with disabilities are necessarily a burden to others, especially to their parents and other family members. In this paper, we discuss what being a burden to others means in this context and how such an attitude can be avoided without restraining reproductive autonomy. A closer examination shows that the burden assumption is mostly based on misinformation and a false model of disability. Empirical studies as well as narrative evidence from parents who raise a child with disabilities show that the burden assumption is wrong. Raising a child with disabilities does not necessarily mean a decrease in the quality of life. We show how the burden assumption can be challenged through an advanced genetic counselling that combines empirical evidence with narratives from a first-person perspective. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-8519 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Bioethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12518 |