Nancy Press and CH Browner examined a California screening program where babies were tested for genetic defects as part of prenatal care:
“So strong was the presumption in these studies that testing was both good and unproblematic that all issues of informed consent – including whether informed consent was even necessary – were left to the discretion of the investigators at each research site.”
Nancy Press and CH Browner “Why Women Say Yes to Prenatal Diagnosis” Social Science and Medicine 45 (7), 1997, 981
Melinda Tankard Reist commented:
“The studies revealed how the issues of eugenics, disability and abortion were obscured in this “routinization”. This in turn help achieve a high level of test acceptance. There was a “purposeful ignoring” of the connection between prenatal testing and abortion. Nurses rarely mentioned abortion when discussing screening with a couple and the official state booklet on AFP given to all eligible women didn’t even mentioned the word.”
Melinda Tankard Reist Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex, 2006) 10
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