This is the literature that forms the basis of thought for those who counsel prospective parents deciding whether or not to abort. Interestingly, reports from disabled individuals themselves and from their families paint a much more balanced picture. Self-reporting indicates that joy as well as challenge fills the lives of people with disabilities and that families with disabled children fare on the whole no better and no worse than families with nondisabled children. A strong recommendation in the book is for those in the medical and genetics-counseling fields to learn more about life with a disability from people who live that life so that they can provide more balanced information. Several contributors to the book argue that these demands may be constructions of society, meaning that, if society would change to become more helpful and welcoming, raising a disabled child would not encompass extra demands.
Families seem able to cope and adapt, especially when appropriate services are available.
Saxton suggests that society should eradicate the social discrimination that attends disability, not eradicate the people who have the disabilities. Other authors in the volume reject the contention that a negative message is sent by women who choose to abort. Their essays argue that women who choose selective abortion may still be entirely accepting of people with disabilities and supportive of the goals of the disability rights movement. Among the many interesting themes discussed in the book is the fact that people can hold complex and contradictory beliefs about a subject. The results of research by Nancy Press and Carole Browner exploring pregnant women's attitudes toward disability in the context of prenatal testing demonstrate this.