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14 Med. & L. 397 (1995)
Legislating to Preserve Women's Autonomy during Pregnancy

handle is hein.journals/mlv14 and id is 399 raw text is: Med Law (1995) 14:397-412 Medicine and Law CICML 1995 Genetics Legislating to Preserve Women's Autonomy during Pregnancy Ilise L Feltshans Associate Director, Legislative Drafting Research Fund, Columbia University School of Law, New York, United States Abstract Women are often excluded from the process of medical de- cision making during pregnancy, even though medical decisions that are made by health care professionals affect them personally and af- fect the future well-being of the unborn. Women in general and preg- nant women in particular, will feel the impact of new genetic tests and technologies, designed to predict and even treat certain genetic problems during pregnancy, through prenatal diagnosis, foetal surgery and foetal gene therapy. This may be the first of several implications that new genetics technologies will hold for women's autonomy during pregnancy. Does genetic testing of a foetus empower women or pose an unanticipated threat to autonomy? To address these issues, there Is a need to articulate a feminist perspective on genetic testing and possibly to legislate protection of women's rights during prenatal care. This article raises, but does not answer, several important issues re- garding the implications of new developments in genetic testing that will affect pregnant women's autonomy in medical decision making. The article concludes that, although there are United States consti- tutional protections for the right to abortion and in turn, therapeutic abortion, an unfavourable chain of precedents regarding women's au- tonomy during pregnancy makes it imperative that there be strong legislation providing assurances that information will be given to preg- nant women about the genetic testing process; that women will be made aware of their right to refuse treatment; that the law will require health care professionals to give adequate information to pregnant women regarding possible treatment outcomes in order to make an informed choice; and that there will be adequate protection for the right to confidentiality of information regarding prenatal prognosis, in order to safeguard autonomous decision making during pregnancy. 1 INTRODUCTION Autonomous rights of pregnant women have received little attention in the literature of informed consent or personal autonomy rights. Recog- nizing that the present needs of pregnant women for information and for independent, autonomous decision making regarding treatment during preg- nancy are not adequately met by the existing principles of informed consent, 397

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