Reexamining Models of Disability and Applying Rationality, Morality, and Ethics to Support Disability Rights in Context of Genetics

The author discusses genetic and assistive reproduction science and technology in light of their impact on people with disabilities. Specifically, he focuses on the prism of the models through which disability is recognized. If applied in a manner such that the best facets of both models of disability can bear forth, then the position of the author, a person with a vision disability, is that his colleagues in the disability civil rights movement should not reflexively excoriate genetic and assisted reproduction science and technology. However, safeguarding people with disabilities, who are a discrete and insular minority across the globe, against the negative potentialities of science and technology, requires more than laudatory pronouncements. Two proposed prescriptions may have the affect of positively influencing the application of genetic and assisted reproduction science and technology within the United States, a world leader with respect to the rights of the disabled community. They are: (1) model legislation that sets a framework for science and technology in a pro-life, pro-disability rights context. A waiting period, such that individuals will subsequently engage in informed decision-making regarding an embryo or fetus with a disability or future possible disabling condition, constitutes an integral component of this model legislation. And (2) measures to further evolve further cultural notions and attitudes about disability