Sociologist Charles L Bosk interviewed workers and sat in on sessions at a clinic that did genetic counseling, where medical professionals encouraged abortion when women came in pregnant with children who had disabilities.
In one case where a doctor was counseling a couple about their pregnancy, an amniocentesis revealed that the baby may or may not be handicapped. The counselor did not urge her to abort. Samuels, another doctor, thought he should have:
“Samuels knew exactly what direction he would take in counseling. He described the pregnancy as “unacceptable” and then continued: “The woman is 34, she had the procedure [amniocentesis] done for high anxiety, and nothing that has been done so far would reduce the level of anxiety. In fact, given the marker, this is the kind of situation where you can’t even tell immediately after birth whether or not the child will be born with some damage”…
…You have a test result. And when you look at the whole picture, the 34-year-old woman, the high anxiety – you see she needs more direction. You have a resolvable situation; you can remove her anxiety by performing the abortion. And if you told her she could get pregnant again, they would not be in the place they are now.”
Charles L Bosk All God’s Mistakes: Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992) 120 – 121
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