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Down Syndrome NSW
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Wednesday 22 April 2015

Pro-choice and anti-eugenic: some recent discourse

The concept of 'pro-choice and anti-eugenic' is attracting increasing attention in the ever more complex ethical debate arising from advances in prenatal testing, as are considerations about the quality of information prospective parents are offered, and the language we use in relation to pre-birth testing and diagnosis:
For Elysium, 6th April 2015
 ... So how about this? Remove abortion from the conversation. Just like when a woman gets pregnant and nobody goes around telling her she has “options” because guess what? She knows that. And if she has a positive screen for Down syndrome, she still knows that. Nobody needs to spell it out for her.

But by including talk of abortion with a Down syndrome diagnosis, medical professionals are forcing parents into a corner. They are forcing parents to make a decision they might not even have considered. They are planting ideas of a horrible, suffering, painful existence that could be prevented with one life-changing decision ...

Seeking a pro-choice and anti-eugenic rhetoric
David Perry, How Did We Get Into This Mess, 28th October 2015
... I believe, without equivocation, that access to abortion should be universal, affordable, protected by law, and solely the choice of the woman. But I also believe that in making such choices we reveal all kinds of underlying principles about what is valued, what is good, and what is normal. In general, disability is perceived as none of these things. I am trying, and mostly flailing about, to develop a pro-choice and anti-eugenic rhetoric ...

How the Pro-Choice Movement Excludes People With Disabilities
Lenzi Sheible, RH Reality Check, 17th October, 2014
... Rather than reasoning that all abortions should be equally accessible no matter what, many pro-choice advocates lean on the argument that of course people, including anti-choicers, would opt out of having a disabled child if they had the means ...

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