Ethics of prenatal screening

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

huh?

Sorry, I don't understand this reply at all.

I believe that what he means is that there isn't a questionaire to get an abortion in Canada. It could be because you think a baby will make you look fat, it has down's, you think it'll have green eyes, you don't think you can properly take care of it, you're a 13 year old who got raped, or any other reason. Legally, it makes no difference what the reason is.

[Thor]

This is just the tip of the iceberg, we're in for a revolution in the very near future and there is going to be a ton of interesting and difficult decisions on the ethical consequences of our tinkering with the natural birth process.

Personally I'd say that I could only answer very specific issues and know fully the risk factor before being comfortable with answering it.

But if its a clear cut question of having a baby with a debilitating disease or an abortion the choice for me would be always on the side of abortion.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

What he means is that there isn't a questionaire to get an abortion in Canada. It could be because you think a baby will make you look fat, it has down's, you think it'll have green eyes, you don't think you can properly take care of it, you're a 13 year old who got raped, or any other reason. Legally, it makes no difference what the reason is.

I see.

So his own "severe defect" comment was not intended to be reflected upon.

My mistake.

[TorqueDog]

Sorry Ph.D, I read your response wrong.

The answer to your question of "Would you abort if X, Y, or Z happened to be true?" is "Most likely, if whoever I was having the child with agreed".

If -through prenatal screening - it was determined I was going to have a physically or mentally handicapped child, or one with a very good chance of dying from a disease early on, then certainly I would support aborting and trying for a healthy child.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Thor

This is just the tip of the iceberg, we're in for a revolution in the very near future and there is going to be a ton of interesting and difficult decisions on the ethical consequences of our tinkering with the natural birth process.

Personally I'd say that I could only answer very specific issues and know fully the risk factor before being comfortable with answering it.

But if its a clear cut question of having a baby with a debilitating disease or an abortion the choice for me would be always on the side of abortion.

Near future nothing, India and China are already screening out girls to a level that will make them unstable.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Near future nothing, India and China are already screening out girls to a level that will make them unstable.

Yeah. That'll be a high quality natural experiment for the male age composition hypothesis. Probably a good idea to stay out of Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh.