Genetic Testing and the Rush to Perfection

BACKGROUND AND SCOPE:
Despite the growing understanding that disability is a normal part of the human experience, the lives of persons with disabilities continue to be devalued in medical decision-making. Negative biases and inaccurate assumptions about the quality of life of a person with a disability are pervasive in U.S. society and can result in the devaluation and disparate treatment of people with disabilities, and in the medical context, these biases can have serious and even deadly consequences. In this series of reports on bioethics, the National Council on Disability will explore how people with disabilities are impacted by biases and assumptions in some of the most critical healthcare issues we face, including:

• Genetic testing — This report examines the range of scientific, commercial, professional and social factors that converge around prenatal genetic testing and their effect on the lives of people with disabilities; and provides an update on the interaction between genetic testing and employment discrimination.