The Disability Rights Critique of Technologies that Eliminate Human Genetic Variation

^{Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash}

Introduction

The development and use of an expanding range of medical technologies that yield genetic information about embryos and fetuses has raised ethical questions about whether and how this increasingly routine set of practices discriminates against people with disabilities. A conversation in the form of academic articles and public media offers explications and critiques about the social and moral harms human gene editing and prenatal genetic testing and the selective reproduction practices it prompts bring to humanity. These purported harms range from increased social inequity—at the very least—to structural and individual violence—at the very most.

This collection suggests that conversations about these technologies have changed over time and also reflects the varied communities engaged in those conversations over time and across social locations. The collection thus focuses on the health humanities in the broadest sense. This means that the data, evidence, and knowledge it gathers come from the lives of individuals, families, and human communities who live with disabilities and illnesses, not from medical-scientific or clinical data. The stories in the final section of...