Writer sees ‘impending epidemic of disability abortions’
June 8th, 2009Writing in the American Spectator, Daniel Allott assesses the potential impact of Sequenom, a California company that has promised to produce an earlier, more reliable prenatal test for Down syndrome. The introduction of Sequenom’s test to the marketplace has been delayed as a result of the alleged “mishandling” of data by its employees.
…Recent developments may delay the impending epidemic of disability abortions caused by enhanced genetic testing …(but) none of this means unborn babies with disabilities will be granted an extended reprieve. Sequenom says it wants to have a validated test by the fourth quarter of 2009 and new tests launched by late 2010 or early 2011. And at least three other companies are developing similar genetic tests and hope to have them on the market by the end of the year.
A mother’s womb is already the most hazardous place on earth for a baby. It won’t be long before it becomes a death chamber for almost all babies with disabilities.
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June 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am
We have always been beings, seemingly, that do not understand ourselves well enough to know what we are capable of until we realize what we have done.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:19 am
All my life, we’ve worried that scientific advances have exceeded society’s ability to cope with the attendant moral and ethical issues. That’s true of nuclear weapons and it’s true of prenatal testing. We need to put as much effort into those moral and ethical issues as we do into technology.