Abstract

The deployment of prenatal diagnostic techniques raises complex ethical decisions which lie at the intersection of Technology, Law and Society. The paper examines socio-ethical dilemmas posed by a judgment delivered by the Mumbai High Court in 2008, denying a post-diagnostic abortion at twenty-four weeks of pregnancy. It examines the power relations and ideologies that underlie decision-making and contends that the judgment is framed in medical language without addressing moral ambiguities posed by technologies. Discourses dominated by medical language overlook both macro- level structural issues related to health care as well as subjective feelings and affects. The judgement also raises doubts about whether scientific foreknowledge by itself empowers women. Furthermore, in India with poor provision of genetic testing and treatment and lack of institutional support mechanisms, ethics of care needs to take precedence over autonomy and beneficence in resolving the debate. The paper makes a plea for a more dynamic, flexible and contextual decision-making based on ethics of care