From the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required), an article by Lila Guterman about prenatal screening for thalassemia on the island of Cyprus.

Cyprus has a high rate of thalassemia, an inherited blood disease, and people there are required to get tested before marriage to find out whether they carry the gene. Prenatal genetic screening is voluntary, but the state pays for abortions when thalassemia is diagnosed.

Even though the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus views abortion as a sin, it seems most people are taking that path. Without the screening program, approximately 70 babies would be born with thalassemia each year — one in every 158 births on the island. But no more than one or two such babies have been born in any year since the mid-1980s.

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, a professor of the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania, has worked to document how and why Cypriots came to adopt and support the screening program. (Earlier post here.) After dozens of interviews on both sides of the island, she came to realize that people in every sector of society had strong reasons to consider the program ethical.

Some Western Europeans and Americans, however, have voiced doubts. They wonder whether reducing the number of people born with the disease will undermine medical care for existing patients. Others worry that the program sits on a slippery slope leading to screening programs for less-deadly diseases.

But the success on Cyprus proves those concerns are hollow, contends Ms. Cowan.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 11:14 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, abortion, ethics, eugenics, genetics, international, prenatal diagnosis, quality of life, religion. 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