ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a different problem, namely how assessments of 'good life' are made technically feasible during the course of selective reproductive practices. It examines ongoing attempts to stabilize and delimit the contested category of 'serious disease' in the context of selective reproductive practices in England today. The burgeoning literature in the form of pamphlets, booklets, parent guides, handbooks and websites aimed at parents who are contemplating undergoing or have undergone carrier testing, preimplantation genetic diagnosis or prenatal diagnosis. This involves an entirely different form of assessing vitality, and it is this form of vital assessment that will be the focus of the remainder of this chapter. And so, where some might consider Down's syndrome serious enough to warrant termination of pregnancy because of the condition's potential impact on the future child's quality of life.
