The concept of wrongful birth, which is based on the premise that a person would have been better off never having been born, is a serious mat­ter for Catholic obstetricians, especially in the context of prenatal screening. This principle, in conjuncture with the belief that individuals with disabilities have a decreased quality of life, has been used to promote a eugenic mentality. Consequently, prenatal screening tests often are used to identify fetuses with disabilities, who subsequently are aborted. Not only is (...) this practice ethically reprehensible, but its presuppositions about quality of life find little support in the medical literature. In fact, in the case of Down syndrome, there is consider­able evidence to the contrary: individuals living with Down syndrome have a high quality of life and are accepted by their families. These data illuminate the discrepancy between how physicians portray Down syndrome to expect­ant parents and what the literature shows regarding this condition. (shrink)

The authors respond to a recent consensus statement on maternal–fetal vital conflicts. Sound ethical analysis must depend on accurate medical facts, but there appear to be inconsistencies in the medical analysis. The consensus statement says that the specific threat to the health of the mother immediately subsides following detachment of the placenta from the uterus. The authors refute this assertion, since death from peripartum cardiomyopathy may occur months to years following delivery of the neonate or following termination. The authors assert (...) further that the placenta is an organ of the fetus and that any act on the placenta is a direct act on the fetus itself. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 : 31–37. (shrink)