Dickens B M
J Med Ethics. 1986 Sep;12(3):143-4, 150. doi: 10.1136/jme.12.3.143.
Alarm over the prospect that prenatal diagnostic techniques, which permit identification of fetal sex and facilitate abortion of healthy but unwanted female fetuses has led some to urge their outright prohibition. This article argues against that response. Prenatal diagnosis permits timely action to preserve and enhance the life and health of fetuses otherwise endangered, and, by offering assurance of fetal normality, may often encourage continuation of pregnancies otherwise vulnerable to termination. Further, conditions in some societies may sometimes render excusable the inclination to abort certain healthy female fetuses. In places where abortion for fetal sex alone is recognised as unethical, however, medical licensing authorities already possess the power to discipline, for professional misconduct, physicians who prescribe or perform prenatal diagnosis purely to identify fetal sex, or those who disclose fetal sex when that is unrelated to the fetus's medical condition.
对于产前诊断技术可能带来的后果人们深感忧虑，这种技术能够鉴定胎儿性别，并促使人们打掉健康但却不想要的女胎，这使得一些人强烈要求彻底禁止该技术。本文反对这一做法。产前诊断能够让人们及时采取行动，以保护并改善那些原本会受到威胁的胎儿的生命与健康，而且，通过确保胎儿正常，它常常还能促使那些原本可能会终止的妊娠得以继续。此外，在某些社会环境下，打掉某些健康女胎的倾向有时可能情有可原。然而，在那些仅因胎儿性别而进行堕胎被视为不道德的地方，医疗许可机构已经有权对那些纯粹为了鉴定胎儿性别而开具产前诊断处方或实施该诊断的医生，以及那些在与胎儿病情无关时透露胎儿性别的医生，因其职业不当行为进行惩处。
