"This lifetime commitment": Public conceptions of disability and noninvasive prenatal genetic screening

• Published in: American journal of medical genetics. Part A Vol. 170A; no. 2; pp. 363 - 374
• Main Authors: Steinbach, Rosemary J., Allyse, Megan, Michie, Marsha, Liu, Emily Y., Cho, Mildred K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2016; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Aneuploidy; Attitude to Health; cell-free DNA; disability rights; Disabled Persons; down syndrome; Down Syndrome - diagnosis; Down Syndrome - genetics; Down Syndrome - psychology; Female; Genetic Testing - methods; Humans; intellectual disabilities; Male; NIPS; noninvasive prenatal screening; Pregnancy; Prenatal Diagnosis - psychology; prenatal testing; Public Opinion; trisomy; intellectual disabilities; noninvasive prenatal screening; cell-free DNA; NIPS; disability rights; down syndrome; prenatal testing; public opinion; trisomy
• ISSN: 1552-4825; 1552-4833
• DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.a.37459

Recently, new noninvasive prenatal genetic screening technologies for Down syndrome and other genetic conditions have become commercially available. Unique characteristics of these screening tests have reignited long‐standing concerns about prenatal testing for intellectual and developmental disabilities. We conducted a web‐based survey of a sample of the US public to examine how attitudes towards disability inform views of prenatal testing in the context of these rapidly advancing prenatal genetic screening technologies. Regardless of opinion toward disability, the majority of respondents supported both the availability of screening and the decision to continue a pregnancy positive for aneuploidy. Individuals rationalized their support with various conceptions of disability; complications of the expressivist argument and other concerns from the disability literature were manifested in many responses analyzed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.