In this lucid and thought-provoking book, Chris Kaposy takes on the ethics of prenatal selection against Down syndrome. Challenging some of the 'common-sense' assumptions of mainstream bioethical and biomedical thinking about people with intellectual disabilities, Kaposy offers a new way of approaching the minefield of moral decisions raised by selective reproductive technologies. Choosing Down Syndrome is sure to become a benchmark in thinking through disability, normalcy, and prenatal choice.
Jackie Leach Scully, Executive Director, Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre
In this deeply thoughtful and bold book, Chris Kaposy addresses what could sound at first like a question of interest to only a few: should prospective parents selectively abort fetuses with Down syndrome? But in giving his answer, he shows why the question should be of interest to all: it requires us to figure out no less than what kind of people we want to be and what kind of society we want to live in. He challenges us to imagine a radical reorientation of values—where we come to prize solidarity as much as autonomy, to recognize our vulnerability as much as our independence, and to celebrate our capacity for acceptance as much as our capacity for control.
Erik Parens, Senior Research Scholar, The Hastings Center; author of Shaping Our Selves: On Technology, Flourishing, and a Habit of Thinking
A highly accessible work that manages to be both sensitive and sensible. Unlike many mainstream philosophers, Kaposy does not dismiss the lived experiences of persons with Down syndrome and their families, but engages with them.
Simo Vehmas, Professor, Department of Special Education, Stockholm University
...Kaposy offers a well-informed, thoughtful, and compassionate argument for why prospective parents might not just accept but welcome a child with Down syndrome into their families....Kaposy's critical generosity is striking in today's combative and polarized political atmosphere. His measured tone is an especially welcome corrective to the nasty and divisive voices that so often dominate debates over abortion.
Christian Century
Chris Kaposy's Choosing Down Syndrome: Ethics and New Prenatal Testing Technologies is a courageous, open, and interesting attempt to argue in favor of bringing fetuses affected with Down syndrome to birth.
Bioethics
Anyone working in medicine, philosophy, bioethics, or law would do well to read Kaposy's Choosing Down Syndrome. It is important, challenging, and thought‐provoking.
Bioethics
