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The Morality of Prenatal Testing and Selective Abortion: Clarifying the Expressivist Objection

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Mutating Concepts, Evolving Disciplines: Genetics, Medicine, and Society

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 75))

Abstract

Current public and philosophical debate concerning the morality of prenatal testing and selective abortion is occurring at the intersection of a number of complex social developments. First and most obviously, the debate is occasioned by developments in medical genetics that make prenatal genetic testing possible. Second and simultaneously, the growing disability rights movement urges that disability be understood not simply as a medical fact, but as a social construction.’ Thus, while developments in genetic technology change the way that various disabling conditions are understood and invite their “geneticization” (Lippman, 1991; Wolf, 1995), the disability rights movement advocates a shift from a strict medical (or genetic) understanding of disability.

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Carlson, L. (2002). The Morality of Prenatal Testing and Selective Abortion: Clarifying the Expressivist Objection. In: Parker, L.S., Ankeny, R.A. (eds) Mutating Concepts, Evolving Disciplines: Genetics, Medicine, and Society. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 75. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0269-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0269-1_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3959-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0269-1

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