'Maybe it would be better if you spoke to my mother?' - genetic counseling and personal experience.
This is the narratives of a family physician and a teacher of Medical Ethics, who herself suffers from Gaucher's disease. She was asked by a colleague to give an advice to a couple trying to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy of a fetus "like her". The ethical, emotional and communicational challenges of the conversation are described in this essay.
Kannai
Ruth
R
Department of Family Medicine, Hadassah School of Medicine, Hebrew University, PO Box 12272, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. rkannai@gmail.com
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology; D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics; D005260:Female; D005776:Gaucher Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D005817:Genetic Counseling; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis