Epistemic Virtue, Prospective Parents and Disability Abortion

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Philosophy of Disability
• Reproductive Ethics

Background:

• Prenatal diagnosis of intellectual disability frequently leads to pregnancy termination.
• Parental decisions are often based on perceived quality of life for the child or family.
• Disability-based abortion raises ethical concerns regarding virtue ethics and parental acceptance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze disability abortion through the lens of epistemic virtue, beyond moral virtue.
• To argue that parents may hold false or contested beliefs about life with intellectual disability.
• To examine the role of epistemic conscientiousness in parental decisions regarding intellectual disability.

Main Methods:

• Ethical analysis of virtue ethics and epistemic virtue.
• Critique of the "prevention of harm" argument for disability abortion.
• Examination of culpable ignorance and intellectual virtues in the context of reproductive decisions.

Main Results:

• The motivation to prevent harm to a child with intellectual disability is often based on mistaken beliefs.
• Parents may exhibit a lack of epistemic conscientiousness, leading to flawed judgments about disability.
• Disability abortion can be understood as involving failures in intellectual virtue.

Conclusions:

• Decisions to terminate pregnancies due to intellectual disability may stem from epistemic failings.
• Promoting intellectual virtue could influence parental decision-making regarding prenatal diagnoses.
• Further consideration of epistemic conscientiousness is needed in bioethical discussions of disability abortion.