For example, nine out of 10 respondents thought it should be illegal for employers and insurance companies to have access to the results of genetic tests. They feared that they could be open to abuse and some people could become uninsurable as a result. Other questions provoked a range of responses as opinion is split between those who see genetics as a chance to improve health and alleviate suffering and others as an opportunity for crazed scientists to rid the world of disabled people. At the heart of the debate lie fears that genetic science could be eugenics by another name. The sterilisation of disabled people in the 1920s and 1930s in the UK, US and Germany looms large when genetic tests are discussed.
Doctors can test for a growing number of conditions in the womb, in childhood or in later life.
The survey respondents say the technology should be used to help people, not produce perfect people. Within the disability movement, Tom Shakespeare, who works on disability and genetics at Newcastle, university, has been trying to steer a course through the debate. He says that the voices of people who have direct experience of impairments arent being heard. Clinical knowledge alone isnt enough, he says. People need to know what its like to live with a disability before they advise pregnant women about what to do following a test.