Bioethical Challenges for the

Rehabilitation Counselor
Bioethical Challenges - Current
 Advance Directives
 Physician Assisted Suicide
 Reproductive Technologies
 Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective
Abortion
Prenatal Diagnosis and
Genetic Counseling

Ethical and Human Rights

Concerns
Prenatal Testing
 Used to detect genetic disorders during
early stages of pregnancy
 Common Procedures:
 Maternal serum screening
 Chorionic Villi sampling
 Amniocentesis
 Carries risk of procedure-related
miscarriage and false pos & neg
Why is it important to detect
genetic disorders?
 Reproductive Rights
 Prevention of Suffering/Quality of Life
 Child (wrongful life)
 Parent (wrongful birth)
 Society
 Gives family time to prepare
Why is it inappropriate to
engage in prenatal testing?
 Who is qualified to define quality of life?
 Those without disabilities believe far greater
suffering than those with disabilities
 Quality of life is related to more to societal
response than to the disability itself
 Parents may feel coerced to do their part to
“stamp out birth defects” (Moral responsibility
to avoid preventable disease)
Why is it inappropriate to
engage in prenatal testing?
 Everyone has the right to exist
 Child’s future right to autonomy is
compromised by upholding parental right to
autonomy
 Slippery Slope
 Discrimination vs. PWD
 Selective abortion based on other undesirable
characteristics – “Made to order” children
 Perpetuates neg. attitudes toward disability
 Better not to be born than to have a disability
Why is it inappropriate to
engage in prenatal testing?
 Belief that genetic counselors and
physicians are biased toward selective
abortion
 General lack of knowledge about
disability
 Must make decision quickly before fully
informed due to increased medical risk
as pregnancy advances
Bioethical Challenges – Into
the Future
 Genetic Engineering
 Cloning