‘We can screen abnormalities out before birth, but should we?’

Journalist Rebecca Atkinson, writing for the BBC’s Ouch! website, challenges a section of the UK’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill that would make it illegal for prospective parents using IVF to knowingly select an embryo that could develop a “serious” disability or medical condition. The bill is currently before the House of Lords.

Why, Atkinson asks, should it be acceptable to screen out babies with disabilities, and illegal to use the same technology to screen them in? She perceives such a prohibition as an infringement on the rights of people with disabilities to reproduce as they choose.

If we believe in equal rights, shouldn’t those rights apply to all areas of life, including the right to reproductive choices the same as anyone else? In theory, yes. In reality, however, there is a huge double bind at play in the realm of reproduction.

… In short, it is not okay to chuck someone out of McDonalds for being deaf once they are here on the planet, but it is okay to decide that they shouldn’t be born. It is not okay to forcibly sterilize a person carrying a genetic condition to stop them propagating their seed, but it is okay to forbid them from reproducing via sperm or egg donation.

By saying that one type of embryo - and thus the person that embryo will grow into - has more right to life than another, and that one type of adult is less entitled to donate sperm or eggs and is therefore less entitled to reproduce than another, isn’t the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill teetering on the brink of eugenics?

Atkinson is best known for her account of love and sight loss in London in her former Guardian Weekend column, Losing Sight, Still Looking.

Earlier story: Deaf demand right to designer deaf children

Press release for the Stop Eugenics campaign in the UK, protesting against clause 14 of the Human Fertilization and Embryology bill.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 11:01 am and is filed under Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, commentary, deaf/hard of hearing, eugenics, genetics, international, law, prenatal diagnosis, public attitudes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post