Question

An obstetrician asked for a bioethics consultation to consider the request of Charles and Amanda Harrleson for genetic testing and possible elective abortion. Mrs. Harrelson, who was pregnant for the first time, was three months into an apparently normal pregnancy. She and her husband were both achondroplastic dwarfs. They seemingly were financial comfortable and well-adjusted to their physician conditions. They requested testing of their developing fetus for the evidence of achondroplasia. The condition results from a mutation of a single gene, the FGFR3 gene. If both parents have the gene, one in four will inherit two copies, which will result in severe effects, usually still birth or death from respiratory failure soon after birth. One in four will not inherit any copies and will not be affected and Two in four will inherit one copy and have dwarfism, the same characteristics as their parents. The obstetrician was discussing this with Mr. and Mrs. Harrelson and helping them understand their options. It became apparent to the obstetrician that their intention was not only to abort a fetus with two copies of the gene but also any fetus with no copies. If the fetus were not achrondroplastic, they would have the pregnancy aborted because they did not want to rear children obviously different from themselves.

Quation

1, How would you evaluate this situation if you were a member of the ethics committee?

2, What decision would you make and why?

Answer 1

1. As a member of ethics committee thus situation can be evaluated as non preparation or an unplanned pregnancy though the couple was legally married or living together. They were not ready to rear a baby even if it is born healthy or not with dwarfism.

2.The decision which can be made here are

• Councelling for the couple by experts to make a clear decision . Explaining them the importance of first pregnancy and providing optimistic options to carry pregnancy to make a family
• Encouraging the parents to continue pregnancy if the genetic testing results are normal and if they are capable of giving a healthy baby.
• Finally the principle of autonomy has to be respected if they don't agree and posess a great risk for not caring for the baby after delivery to terminate the pregnancy.