Disability rights in dialogue with clinical genetics conference, May 31 to June 2, 1996
The issue of prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion has been hotly debated in the medical, genetic counselling, feminist, parents, disability rights and bio-ethics literature, each of the various positions critiquing each other. People from the disability rights community in particular have began to articulate a critical view of the practice of widespread prenatal diagnosis with intent to abort because the pregnancy might result in a child with a disability. Unfortunately, people from the various disciplines and perspectives, such as bioethics, disability rights, feminism and so forth, by and large, have tended only to write for themselves and their colleagues. Few people have crossed disciplines to try to talk to people with other views. The rapid advances of genome research have continued to produce new prenatal tests, raising many complex ethical questions regarding the applications of prenatal testing. But the widely disparate positions of the various factions has made it difficult to move toward formulation of public policy change necessary to encompass these new genetic technologies. Genetic counselling is in the front lines of the controversial social and ethical issues arising from prenatal diagnosis, in its interface between medical science and the consumer of services. The primary intent of the conference was to invite and facilitate productive dialogue between individuals and groups of people who have traditionally not interacted as a result of their disparate views on these issues and to learn from this process, emphasizing the involvement of people with disabilities and people who work in clinical genetics.
- Research Organization:
- Project on Women and Disability, Boston, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-94ER61826
- OSTI ID:
- 335173
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9605357--Summ.; ON: DE99002368
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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