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‘Calming or Harming?’ The Ethics of Screening for Fetal Defects

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Issues in Fetal Medicine

Part of the book series: Studies in Biology, Economy and Society ((SBES))

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Abstract

In this chapter, only diagnostic screening for individual patients is considered; and that at any stage from the polar body onwards. Notice is taken of new diagnostic techniques which disclose function as well as genetic composition and structure. Screening is widely accepted, and provision for it is increasing, if slowly. Ethics implies choice: primarily choice by the patient based on the information which it is a clinical duty to provide. Choice is complicated by inherent uncertainty. It is not unlimited: it must be within the law and consistent with professional obligation.

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References

  • Dunstan, G. R. and M. J. Seller (1983) (eds) Consent in Medicine: Convergence and Divergence in Tradition (London: King Edward’s Hospital Fund for London) 128 pp.

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  • Kennedy, I. (1991) ‘A woman and her unborn child’, in Treat Me Right: Essays in Medical Law and Ethics (2nd edn) (Oxford: Clarendon Press) pp. 364–84.

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  • Maddox, J. (1992) ‘Melodrama in research publication’, Nature, vol. 355, p. 767.

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Authors
  1. G. R. Dunstan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Princess Mary Maternity Hospital, UK

    S. L. Barron (Emeritus Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist) (Emeritus Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist)

  2. Royal Victorian Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    S. L. Barron (Emeritus Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist) (Emeritus Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist)

  3. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    D. F. Roberts (Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics) (Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics)

Copyright information

© 1995 The Galton Institute

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Dunstan, G.R. (1995). ‘Calming or Harming?’ The Ethics of Screening for Fetal Defects. In: Barron, S.L., Roberts, D.F. (eds) Issues in Fetal Medicine. Studies in Biology, Economy and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23812-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23812-5_10

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-23814-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-23812-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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