Perfecting Pregnancy Law, Disability, and the Future of Reproduction

Prenatal and preimplantation testing technologies have offered unprecedented access to information about the genetic and congenital makeup of our prospective progeny. Future developments such as preconception testing, noninvasive prenatal testing, and more extensive preimplantation testing promise to increase that access further still. The result may be greater reproductive choice, but it also increases the burden on women and men to avail themselves of these technologies in order to avoid having a child who has a disability. The overwhelming question for legislators has been whether and, if so, how to regulate the use of these technologies in the face of compelling but seemingly contradictory claims about the advancement of reproductive choice and the dangers of eugenic or discriminatory effects. This book examines the evolution of this legislative oversight across a number of jurisdictions and explores the tensions and ambiguities that inform these laws.

• Provides a comprehensive comparative legal analysis of laws around prenatal testing and abortion and PGD

• Provides a general account of laws regulating prenatal testing and PGD in Canada, the USA, NZ and several European jurisdictions

• Draws on original empirical research including interviews with regulators and clinicians in Australia