A eugenia em marcha

The New York Times continua divulgando o debate sobre o aborto após teste genético. Trata-se de prática comum no Brasil onde não não há aborto legal. O exame é indicado e realizado por médicos e pacientes que - em aparente contradição - são contrários a estender o acesso do aborto ao restante da população. Na verdade, não gostam de pessoas diferentes. Eu não tenho dúvida em não indicar e renegar esses testes. Dado que o casal esteja interessado em ter um filho, não interessa a doença, sexo ou cor dos olhos.....Uma coisa é o direito em não ter filhos, outra é a repulsa a não ter um filho em particular. Abaixo, parte inicial do texto que pode ser lido para leitores cadastrados clicando o título do post.

New technology may complicate the debates over abortion. By Amy Sharmon Published: May 13, 2007 SARAHLYNN LESTER, 32, considers herself a supporter of abortion rights. She gives money to the National Abortion Rights Action League and volunteers for Planned Parenthood. But as a woman who continued a pregnancy after learning that her child would have Down syndrome, she also has beliefs about the ethics of choosing, or not choosing, certain kinds of children. “I thought it would be morally wrong to have an abortion for a child that had a genetic disability,” said Ms. Lester, a marketing manager in St. Louis. As prenatal tests make it possible to identify fetuses that will have mental retardation, deafness, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and a range of other conditions, such personal deliberations are adding a new layer to the fraught political debate over abortion. Abortion rights supporters — who believe that a woman has the right to make decisions about her own body — have had to grapple with the reality that the right to choose may well be used selectively to abort fetuses deemed genetically undesirable. And many are finding that, while they support a woman’s right to have an abortion if she does not want to have a baby, they are less comfortable when abortion is used by women who don’t want to have a particular baby. “How much choice do you really want to give?” asked Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “That’s the challenge of prenatal testing to pro-choicers.”