Ethical Dilemmas due to Prenatal and Genetic Diagnostics: Interdisciplinary Assessment of Effects of Prenatal and Genetic Diagnostics on Women, their Partners, and on their Relationship in Different European Cultures

Achievements in genetic research produce ethical dilemmas which need to be subject of reflection and debate in modern societies. Ethical dilemmas are seen as situations in which a person has a strong moral obligation to choose each of two alternatives for action, but cannot fulfill both. Denial of ambivalences that ethical dilemmas arouse constitutes a threat to societies as well as to individual persons. The study tries to investigate these dilemmas in detail in a field which seems particularly challenging: prenatal diagnostics (PND). PND data regarding abnormalities confronts women and their partners with ethical dilemmas regarding: life and death of the unborn child, responsibility for the unborn child, for its well being even with abnormalities, possible suffering, and desires for a healthy child, the right to know and to decide about its life, and the right not to know. An important aspect is the conflict of individual beliefs and obligations and those of society's specific cultures. These dilemmas have not received full attention in our societies and often remain latent, creating a source of distress for women (and partners) and may be a burden on the relationships (some couples show better coping capabilities, particularly if support by competent professionals is available). However, more research is needed to identify those with vulnerability to psychopathology as a consequence to abortion after PND results or to giving birth to severely handicapped children (pathology sometimes appears not until years after the decision). The study will describe existing care systems across participating centres. Data is collected in 2 sub-studies. All results are integrated into a discourse on ethical dilemmas. Study (A) recruits two groups of couples (positive or negative PND). Experiences with PND and connected dilemmas will be explored (questionnaires, interviews). Results will be discussed in interdisciplinary research groups. Study (B) interviews psychoanalysts and their long-term patients who showed severe psychopathologies as reactions to the dilemmas mentioned. Results of the study will be discussed with participating couples, experts, general public, and politicians in order to develop cultural fair connected clinical practice in this field within the EU, taking into account cultural differences.

Funding:

FP6, European Commission

Co-ordinator:

Prof. Dr. phil. Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, University of Kassel / Director of the SigmundFreud-Institute, Frankfurt/ University of Kassel

Linköping group:

Stephan Hau, IBL (group leader)
Göran Collste
Anders Nordgren

Publications:

Collste G, 2008. The moral statues of the foetus. In: Leuzinger-Bohleber, M., Engels, E.-M., & Tsiantis, J. (eds.). The Janus Face of Prenatal Diagnostics: A European Study Bridging Ethics, Psychoanalysis, and Medicine. London: Karnac, pp. 289-306.

Nordgren A, 2008. Prenatal genetic counselling: conceptual and ethical issues. In: Leuzinger-Bohleber, M., Engels, E.-M., & Tsiantis, J. (eds.). The Janus Face of Prenatal Diagnostics: A European Study Bridging Ethics, Psychoanalysis, and Medicine. London: Karnac, pp. 307-325.

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Last updated: Tue Oct 02 17:00:49 CEST 2012