Reproduction, ethics and heritable deafness: three South Island families express their views.

Abstract

Three consenting South Island (New Zealand) families with experience of living with a heritable type of deafness undertook a series of open ended interviews to ascertain their own views on reproductive decision making and genetic testing. All the families had undergone genetic testing however their orientation to testing in general was cautiously negative. They did not regard deafness as a suitable reason for considering the termination of a pregnancy, although some of the younger adults gave some hesitant consideration to the ‘right to choose’ for others, while rejecting this for themselves. The families were adamant that deafness was not a disability but rather an inconvenience and that only so because a disabling and audist society created certain obstacles in the pathway to achieving good schooling, employment and quality of life.