PET PET
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
Become a Friend Donate
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements
PETBioNewsCommentNew Zealand needs a genuinely pro-choice approach to prenatal screening

BioNews

New Zealand needs a genuinely pro-choice approach to prenatal screening

Published 25 March 2013 posted in Comment and appears in BioNews 698

Author

Colin Gavaghan

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.

Being a bioethicist in the Antipodes is becoming a dangerous business these days. Just over a year ago, the publication, by two Australian academics, of a paper exploring the acceptability of 'post-birth abortion' led to media furore, hate mail and even death threats to the authors...

Being a bioethicist in the Antipodes is becoming a dangerous business these days. Just over a year ago, the publication by two Australian academics of a paper exploring the acceptability of 'post-birth abortion' led to media furore, hate mail and even death threats to the authors. Now, New Zealand has had its own mini-firestorm generated by an academic paper on a controversial topic.

A recent edition of the New Zealand Medical Journal contained an article by Otago University's Robert Cole and Gareth Jones, entitled 'Testing times: do new prenatal tests signal the end of Down syndrome?' The article dealt with non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD), a new way of testing fetuses for Down's syndrome, 'which enables diagnosis earlier in pregnancy with less risk of complications'.

Cole and Jones defended a broadly pro-choice approach to prenatal screening and abortion of Down's syndrome fetuses, stressing that their position did not devalue the lives of people with Down's syndrome, and striving to distinguish their position from eugenics.

Such efforts were unpersuasive to the campaign group SavingDowns. The group, which opposes screening for the purposes of allowing termination of affected pregnancies, responded not only by criticising the paper's content but by calling for the resignation of Jones and reporting the article to the Human Rights Commission.

Whereas the paper by the Australian academics, Minerva and Giubilini, was at least genuinely provocative (while undeserving of some of the appalling response it garnered), the Cole and Jones paper may seem an unlikely target for such vitriol. The position it adopted was essentially in support of the legal status quo and in keeping with a fairly mainstream body of bioethical opinion.

The contribution of people with first-hand experience of these issues is indispensable in the context of discussing policy and practice around matters like this. Unfortunately, SavingDowns' apparent policy of trying to wreck the career of anyone who says what they consider the wrong thing is hardly likely to facilitate much productive dialogue with academia or healthcare professionals.

It would also be unfortunate though, if the issue of 'academic freedom' completely overshadowed the substantive questions arising from this dispute. SavingDowns' scattergun approach to attacking the article has resulted in a lot of shots going wide of the target, but a few of their concerns merit closer attention.

The position set out in the Cole and Jones article is that prenatal screening and abortion are only options. The position of the state and the profession is not pro-screening or pro-abortion, and certainly not eugenic. Rather, the value being upheld throughout is one of choice.

But the truth may not be so simple. New Zealand law doesn't allow for abortion on demand. Specifically, abortion wouldn't be permitted for just any reason that the pregnant woman deemed sufficient. If our position were genuinely 'pro-choice', wouldn't we allow those choices too? To say otherwise, to make an exception for 'seriously handicapped' fetuses, seems to commit us, as a society, to saying something in particular about handicap.

SavingDowns trace this back to the Royal Commission Report of 1977 that drew a marked distinction between abortion 'for reasons of social convenience', which it viewed as 'morally wrong' and abortion of a 'fetus [...] likely to be born with a severe physical or mental handicap', which is 'not immoral'. It is not only groups like SavingDowns that regard this position as dubious or discriminatory.

Of course, this 'discriminatory' position could be resolved in one of two ways. The restrictive course would be to treat 'handicapped' pregnancies the same way as we currently treat 'normal' pregnancies, allowing abortion only where the continuation of pregnancy presents a serious risk to the mother, etc. The permissive course would be to treat all pregnancies as we currently do those affected by 'serious handicap', allowing abortion on demand up to 20 weeks gestation.

This latter course is the one I have advocated in relation to preimplantation screening (see BioNews 398). A genuinely pro-choice approach to abortion would not treat 'disabled pregnancies' differently from other kinds. Rather, it would respect and support whatever choices women make in these situations. Whether this would satisfy SavingDowns is unclear — their position on abortion per se is a matter of some conjecture — but it would, I think, allow the law to send a message that is resoundingly pro-choice, untainted by any hint of a eugenic agenda.

Related Articles

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Reviews
16 November 2015 • 3 minutes read

Theatre Review: Tomcat

by Dr Jane Currie

Tomcat is a play set in a future where state-controlled prenatal screening has eradicated all genetic conditions. Nearly all, that is...

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1997. Depicts the gyri of the Thinker's brain as a maze of choices in biomedical ethics (based on Auguste Rodin's 'The Thinker').
CC BY 4.0
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1997. Depicts the gyri of the Thinker's brain as a maze of choices in biomedical ethics (based on the sculpture 'The Thinker' by Auguste Rodin).
Comment
22 February 2010 • 5 minutes read

Cell-free fetal DNA: testing the waters

by Ailsa Stevens

A decade ago, it was found that the blood of pregnant women contains DNA from the fetus. The discovery of this 'free fetal DNA' (ffDNA) has led to the development of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, where genetic characteristics of the fetus can be analysed a mere few weeks into pregnancy by...

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family entwined in coils of DNA (based on the figure of Laocoön from Greek and Roman mythology).
Comment
18 June 2009 • 3 minutes read

Free fetal DNA for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD): ethical aspects

by Dr Zuzanna Deans and 1 others

Dr Phillipa Brice's accompanying commentary highlights how non-invasive testing of free fetal DNA (ffDNA) in pregnancy could transform women's experiences of antenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis. NIPD is already available for foetal sex, rhesus D blood type and some Mendelian conditions such as achondroplasia, with tests for aneuploidy detection and...

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family entwined in coils of DNA (based on the figure of Laocoön from Greek and Roman mythology).
Comment
18 June 2009 • 3 minutes read

Selecting children

by Dr Helen Watt

Prenatal tests, and selection of children, are deeply entrenched in our liberal culture: it is hard to subject them to a radical critique without attracting heavy disapproval. While it is socially acceptable to refer to prejudice against disabled people - and even to link this with pressures to screen - to challenge...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Comment
18 June 2009 • 3 minutes read

The burden of choice - the parental perspective on antenatal genetic testing

by Jane Fisher

As we approach the 40th anniversary of the 1967 UK abortion law, later abortions have come under particular scrutiny as calls are made for a reduction in time limits. Many of the (relatively few) terminations that occur after 20 weeks are after a diagnosis of fetal abnormality. The UK charity...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Comment
18 June 2009 • 2 minutes read

Who should decide about embryo testing?

by Dr Jess Buxton

When the technology for testing IVF embryos for genetic mutations that cause disease was first developed over 15 years ago, its potential uses seemed pretty clear cut. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) provided a way in which couples at high risk of having a child affected by a genetic disorder could...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

« Obituary: Professor Samuel Lee

Data-Label The UK's Leading Supplier Of Medical Labels & Asset Labels

RetiringDentist.co.uk The UK's Leading M&A Company.

Find out how you can advertise here
easyfundraising
amazon

This month in BioNews

  • Popular
  • Recent
8 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

FILM: 200 Years of Mendel – From Peas to Personalised Medicine

1 August 2022 • 4 minutes read

Women's Health Strategy plans reflect rising needs of same-sex female couples

25 July 2022 • 4 minutes read

Was the Women's Health Strategy worth the wait?

25 July 2022 • 4 minutes read

Why the UK should extend the 14-day rule to 28 days

25 July 2022 • 5 minutes read

200 Years of Mendel: From Peas to Personalised Medicine

15 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

FILM: Editing the Human Genome – Where Are We Now? What Happens Next?

8 August 2022 • 4 minutes read

Citizenship and same-sex parents – about time, Sweden!

8 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

FILM: 200 Years of Mendel – From Peas to Personalised Medicine

1 August 2022 • 4 minutes read

Women's Health Strategy plans reflect rising needs of same-sex female couples

25 July 2022 • 4 minutes read

Was the Women's Health Strategy worth the wait?

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
PET PET

PET is an independent charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Navigation

  • About Us
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • BioNews
  • Events
  • Engagement
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us

BioNews

  • News
  • Comment
  • Reviews
  • Elsewhere
  • Topics
  • Glossary
  • Newsletters

Other

  • My Account
  • Subscribe

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856