ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that current understandings of ethics and of scientific, clinical and counselling work in genetics have common characteristics. More critical awareness of these common threads, and more attention to the social context, would deepen understanding in all these disciplines and increase their efficacy. Genetics is inevitably influenced by its social context, including attitudes towards babies and children. The chapter considers how current attitudes in genetics, ethics and society reflect or challenge those earlier views on inherited conditions. The parent–child relationship is perhaps the only remaining human relationship of unconditional acceptance, though this is increasingly provisional and intolerant, from pre-childhood in parents’ antenatal choices to the end of childhood as illustrated by the growing numbers of homeless young people. The ‘contract society’ which emphasizes formally negotiated and conditional relationships brings welcome new benefits and liberties, but also brings the loss of trust, tolerance and security.
