{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T23:10:14Z","timestamp":1758755414628,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"3","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Med Ethics"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1986,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Alarm over the prospect that prenatal diagnostic techniques, which permit identification of fetal sex and facilitate abortion of healthy but unwanted female fetuses has led some to urge their outright prohibition. This article argues against that response. Prenatal diagnosis permits timely action to preserve and enhance the life and health of fetuses otherwise endangered, and, by offering assurance of fetal normality, may often encourage continuation of pregnancies otherwise vulnerable to termination. Further, conditions in some societies may sometimes render excusable the inclination to abort certain healthy female fetuses. In places where abortion for fetal sex alone is recognised as unethical, however, medical licensing authorities already possess the power to discipline, for professional misconduct, physicians who prescribe or perform prenatal diagnosis purely to identify fetal sex, or those who disclose fetal sex when that is unrelated to the fetus's medical condition.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/jme.12.3.143","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,11,5]],"date-time":"2008-11-05T19:48:04Z","timestamp":1225914484000},"page":"143-150","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Prenatal diagnosis and female abortion: a case study in medical law and ethics."],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"B M","family":"Dickens","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[1986,9,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","article-title":"A good set of examples of this literature is contained","volume-title":"Peters R S, ed. The concept of education","year":"1967","unstructured":"A good set of examples of this literature is contained in Peters R S, ed. The concept of education. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967."},{"key":"ref_2","article-title":"The influence of this approach is evident in Culver C","volume-title":"See especially ch 1: The uses of philosophy in medicine and psychiatry","author":"M, Gert BPhilosophy","year":"1982","unstructured":"The influence of this approach is evident in Culver C M, Gert B, eds. Philosophy and Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. See especially ch 1: The uses of philosophy in medicine and psychiatry."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Representative of recent contributions to these aspects of ethics in medicine are the following: Scruton R.","article-title":"Representative of recent contributions to these aspects of ethics in medicine are the following"},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"\"37","article-title":"Consent in medicine","volume":"7","author":"illness, Mental","year":"1981","unstructured":"Mental illness. Journal of medical ethics 1981; 7: 37-38; Dunstan G R, Seller M J eds. Consent in medicine. London: King Edward Hospital Fund, 1983; Candee D, Puka B. An analytic approach to resolving problems in medical ethics. Journal of medical ethics 1984; 2: 61-70.","journal-title":"Journal of medical ethics; An analytic approach to resolving problems in medical ethics"},{"key":"ref_5","article-title":"And for a recent survey of, and further contributions to, this tradition see","year":"1983","unstructured":"And for a recent survey of, and further contributions to, this tradition see the special medicine and ethics issue of The philosophical quarterly 1983; 33.","journal-title":"the special medicine and ethics issue of The philosophical quarterly"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"This, in effect, is the view taken by Plato in Book 4 of the Republic where he describes justice as a proper relationship between functioning parts of an individual or a society, and thereby likens it to medical welfare. On this account therefore, virtue or moral goodness is a type of health. Later I say something more about the Greek origins of such ideas, and also discuss Plato's account of the relationship between body and soul in a way which shows them to be in tension with this commendable notion of health.","article-title":"This, in effect, is the view taken by Plato in Book 4 of the Republic where he describes justice as a proper relationship between functioning parts of an individual or a society, and thereby likens it to medical welfare. On this account therefore, virtue or moral goodness is a type of health. Later I say something more about the Greek origins of such ideas, and also discuss Plato's account of the relationship between body and soul in a way which shows them to be in tension with this commendable notion of health"},{"key":"ref_7","article-title":"Placita V","volume-title":"The presocratic philosophers","author":"Aetius","unstructured":"Aetius. Placita V: 30, I, as translated by Kirk G S, Raven J E. The presocratic philosophers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975: 234."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Nicomachean ethics, book X: Ch 4.","article-title":"Nicomachean ethics, book X: Ch 4"},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"123","article-title":"anima, books II & III, translated with notes by Hamlyn D W","author":"dualism. In, Robinson H.Aristotelian","year":"1968","unstructured":"De anima, books II & III, translated with notes by Hamlyn D W, Oxford: Clarendon, 1968. Of relevance here are Hamlyn's interesting article, Aristotle's Cartesianism. Paideia, special Aristotle issue 1978; 8-15; and Robinson H. Aristotelian dualism. In: Annas J, ed. Oxford studies in ancient philosophy, Vol 1. Oxford: Clarendon, 1983: 123-144.","journal-title":"Paideia, special Aristotle issue; Oxford studies in ancient philosophy, Vol 1; Of relevance here are Hamlyn's interesting article, Aristotle's Cartesianism"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Phaedo 64c-65.","article-title":"Phaedo 64c-65"},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"249","article-title":"A useful survey of these issues is presented by Dennett, D C. Current issues in the philosophy ofmind","volume":"15","year":"1978","unstructured":"A useful survey of these issues is presented by Dennett, D C. Current issues in the philosophy ofmind. American philosophical quarterly 1978; 15: 249-260.","journal-title":"American philosophical quarterly"},{"key":"ref_12","article-title":"On irreducibility in biology see: Woodger","volume-title":"Studies in the philosophy ofbiology; Biology and language","author":"H.","year":"1952","unstructured":"On irreducibility in biology see: Woodger J H. Biology and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952; and for discussion of the idea of 'emergence' and the hierarchy of empirical sciences: Medawar, P B. A geometric model of reducibility and emergence. In: Ayala F J, Dobzhansky T, eds. Studies in the philosophy ofbiology. London: Macmillan, 1974."},{"article-title":"A system oflogic, book VI, on the logic ofthe moral sciences","author":"S, Mill J.","key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Mill J S. A system oflogic, book VI, on the logic ofthe moral sciences. London: Longmans, 1949: 573."},{"first-page":"555","year":"11):","key":"ref_14","unstructured":"See reference (11): 555-562."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"6","article-title":"Utilitarianism","volume":"1931","author":"S, Mill J.","unstructured":"Mill J S. Utilitarianism. London: Dent, 1931: 6.","journal-title":"London: Dent"},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"38","volume":"1981","author":"L, See Mackie J.","unstructured":"See Mackie J L. Ethics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981: 38-42.","journal-title":"Ethics. Harmondsworth: Penguin"},{"key":"ref_17","article-title":"The unmasking ofmedicine","author":"Kennedy, I.","year":"1981","unstructured":"Kennedy I. The unmasking ofmedicine. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"For the application of this view to medical ethics see reference (3) Candee D, Puka B.","article-title":"For the application"},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"237","article-title":"Technology and prenatal femicide","volume-title":"women: whatfuturefor motherhood","author":"B, Hoskins B.; B, Holmes H.","year":"1984","unstructured":"Hoskins B B, Holmes H B. Technology and prenatal femicide. In: Arditti R, Klein R D, Minden S, eds. Testtube women: whatfuturefor motherhood? London: Pandora Press, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984: 237."}],"container-title":["Journal of Medical Ethics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/jme.12.3.143","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T22:29:41Z","timestamp":1758752981000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/jme.12.3.143"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[1986,9]]},"references-count":19,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[1986,9,1]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1986,9]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/jme.12.3.143"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/jme.12.3.143","relation":{},"ISSN":["0306-6800","1473-4257"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0306-6800"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1473-4257"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[1986,9]]}}}