A medical Pandora's box

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A medical Pandora's box

DNA testing for autism opens doors to selective abortions

Calgary Herald

Published: Sunday, January 13, 2008

Medical advancements hailed as long-awaited breakthroughs often come

with a sobering ethical flip side. Also, all too often, the

advancements come before the debate on their accompanying ethics has

begun.

Researchers at the Autism Consortium in Boston, as well as at

Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, have located a chromosomal link

to autism that could lead to genetic testing for the disorder.

The Boston group found that children with a duplicated or missing

segment of chromosome 16, which appears to control certain brain

functions, have a risk for autism 100 times greater than normal. The

Toronto researchers plan to offer DNA testing as soon as they can.

While a DNA test done on a newborn baby would be of tremendous

benefit in obtaining early intervention and therapy for the child,

thus fostering a much better outcome, the test could also determine

if a fetus is affected. That opens up a Pandora's box of potential

for selective abortion of these fetuses.

Autism is not just one condition; it is a wide gamut of them, with

not only a broad range of symptoms of communications and social

dysfunctions, but within that range of symptoms, there are also wide

degrees of impairment.

At the higher functioning end of the autism spectrum are individuals

with Asperger's syndrome and, while they often suffer various social

impairments, they are usually highly intelligent and productive

people. For example, some scientists think that Mozart's unsurpassed

musical genius was an indication that he may have been autistic.

The danger with a prenatal test is that it will create a situation in

which the value of an individual's life will be determined based on

assumptions about his or her cognitive functions.

It is not just that future Mozarts could be terminated, but that the

value of any person lies in his or her intrinsic humanity, not in

gradations of intellectual ability or chromosomal misfirings.

The richness and joy that an individual brings to his or her family,

friends and the larger world are measured not by intelligence levels,

cognitive disabilities or any other limitation. The only thing that

counts is the uniqueness of that person, made up of all the traits

and qualities that have never been found in any other human in just

such a combination.

The runaway pace of medical technology will force us to decide what

kind of society we want -- one where each individual has inviolable

value, or one where the vulnerable who are most in need of our care

and concern are weeded out because we can't see past their " defects "

to the person beneath.

The debate can be put off no longer.