The quest for the perfect baby: why do Israeli women seek prenatal genetic testing?

Abstract

After a history of neglect, bioethicists have recently turned their attention to the topic of infectious disease. In this paper we link bioethicists' earlier neglect of infectious disease to their under-appreciation of the extent to which the problem of infectious disease is related to social factors and thus to questions of justice. We argue that a social causation of illness model-well-known to sociologists of medicine, but incompletely understood by bioethicists-will improve future bioethical analysis of issues related to infectious disease. By emphasising the relationships between social and economic structures of inequality and health, the social causation model provides a richer approach to ethical issues associated with infectious disease than the more commonly used biomedical model.

BRCA genetic testing of individuals from families with low prevalence of cancer: experiences of carriers and implications for population screening

“…35 Testing for carrier status is often considered a "must" in Israel, and women who choose not to be tested face criticism from their families. 36 In light of the "routinization" of prenatal testing 37 and the comparisons made by a few of the participants between BRCA testing and prenatal testing, attention should be given to avoiding such routinization while implementing BRCA population screening. This is of added importance given that many of the women specifically mentioned that they had undergone genetic testing only to satisfy their relatives and that, initially, the implications of having a positive carrier status had not been thoroughly thought out or understood.…”

University Students' Attitudes towards Genetic Testing: A Comparative Study

“…This finding can be a reflection of their desire to have an 'ideal' child, a phenomenon that has been noted among secular educated women in Israel, who choose to perform prenatal genetic diagnosis because of their fear of having a sick and/or socially unfit child in an unsupportive environment [38].…”

Clinical encounters and culturally competent practice: the challenges of providing cancer and infertility care

“…Nonetheless, religion as a collective body of beliefs and practices does not predefine individual negotiations of moral choices; nor is it the preserve of ethnic minority population (see Remennick, 2006). Perpetuating deterministic frameworks, so as to make practice manageable, reproduces individual subjects as passive victims of their social positioning by virtue of their ethnic background.…”