Marco legal actual ante las enfermedades diagnosticadas en la vida prenatal que puedan asociarse a discapacidad

Abstract

The objective of this review is to understand how the concept of disability in the diagnostic pathologies in prenatal life, which can be associated with disability in postnatal life, is interpreted. In order to do that, the legal framework in which the rights of the unborn persons who are diagnosed with an illness that can be associated with a disability in postnatal life will be analyzed. The possibility for the unborn person to have a diagnosis of his/her health is provided for by our law, and assumed by the public system, the regular health insurances and the private health system. Our law does not explicitly provide for the termination of fetal gestation, except for those cases in which the diagnosed pathology is understood as incompatible with life, and only based on the fetal feasibility. So, the implementation of the prenatal diagnoses can result in a controversial dilemma. It is possible to understand a prenatal diagnosis as a tool that can help to facilitate a better development and adjustment of the babies to be born and their families. Also, it can be assumed that the prenatal diagnosis is a tool to prevent babies with such pathologies from being born by means of the premature termination of the gestation. The objective of this work is to make a bio-ethical reflection about the recognition on the part of our legal system of those illnesses that can be diagnosed prenatally.