Role of SRTs in Definitions of Life and Choice

In reading Gammeltoft and Wahlberg’s introductory piece on Selective Reproductive Technologies I often found myself relating some of the arguments made about the use of these technologies to those made on abortion. The author’s introduce the idea that selective reproductive technology (SRT) is a recent innovation that changes the timescale of selection from after birth to before birth. Upon reading this I thought about the different perceptions of various selection methods based upon where they acted on the spectrum of reproduction. Infanticide, for instance, is generally appalling to those of the Western world who tend to hold the belief that the living child should be preserved at all cost. Seeing that this idea of preservation has expanded to include the fetus, as abortion has become an available technology, I am curious as to whether there will eventually be individuals who see SRT as an immoral transgression on the ‘life’ of a child. The real root of my question here (I think) is if advancing technologies cause us, in general, to classify children as living beings in need of protection earlier and earlier in their life cycles.

I was also intrigued by the contrast of the increasing prevalence of SRTs and the decisions they force people to make with the continued controversy surrounding abortions. I am not educated on trends in the beliefs held on SRTs by those that oppose abortion and I believe that this information might have an impact on my understanding. However, very generally, it seems to me that we are giving women information they may or may not want to know and then not providing them with a social space that fully condones their decisions that come from this information. For example, if a woman undergoes prenatal testing that indicates the fetus has some sort of life altering anomaly, we as a society do not equally support all of the possibilities she has – mainly abortion or continuation of the pregnancy – for acting on this information. If she feels a social pressure to keep the pregnancy, what psychological impact does it have to provide information she feels constrained from acting upon?