Premium
Disability Rights, Prenatal Diagnosis and Eugenics: A Cross‐Cultural View
Author(s) -
Raz Aviad E.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1007/s10897-005-0573-0
Subject(s) - eugenics , genetic counseling , medical model of disability , genetic testing , context (archaeology) , intellectual disability , human genetics , disability studies , public health , medicine , sociology , psychology , gender studies , political science , law , psychiatry , nursing , genetics , gene , biology , paleontology
This paper considers the disability rights critique of genetic testing in the context of different communities and the issue of nondirectiveness. Despite the wide usage of genetic diagnosis in Israel, no public debate has emerged there concerning disability rights and prenatal testing. The common attitude that emerged from interviews with Israeli representatives of organizations “of’’ and “for’’ people with genetic diseases and congenital disabilities can be described as a two‐fold view of disability: support of genetic testing during pregnancy, and support of the disabled person after birth. This two‐fold view is explained as a secular construction situated in legal, economic and cultural contexts. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the “two‐fold view’’ of disability for the profession of genetic counseling. It is argued that awareness of the existence of conflicting views among clients—such as the view of the ‘disability critique’ as well as of the “two‐fold view of disability’’—should strengthen the significance of nondirectiveness.