ABSTRACT
This chapter tries to emphasize several aspects that seem to be relevant in the context of prenatal diagnostics, especially when a new test method is in the process of introduction. As data from the EDIG project is not yet available in Sweden, the underlying material for this chapter stems from two different sources: first, a report by the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU—Statens beredning för medicinsk utvärdering: a governmental authority [www.sbu.se] commissioned to evaluate methods applied in the medical services as a scientific basis for all relevant decision makers in the field) (Nilsson et al., 2006) evaluating the current methods of early prenatal diagnostics; and second, a systematic analysis of the important features about the topic found in the two leading Swedish newspapers, including the readers’ response letters to these articles in a contemporary three-month period. (Data for this media analysis comprised the major articles that could be found in the leading Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet during the time period November 2007 to January 2008. Readers could react and comment on the newspapers’ websites, and all letters to the editor that were published electronically were included in the analysis. By no means 400is this a statistical analysis or a representative study. All comments were categorized [e.g., positive or negative] and in a second step summarized according to the different contents addressed.) Even though not a component of the empirical part of EDIG, relevant issues for the context of EDIG become more explicit by exploring these two types of discussions. Through contrasting these discourses it becomes evident that not all arguments are represented in each discourse. Thus, the chapter is devided into two major parts. After this short introduction, the most relevant aspects of the SUB report are summarized. In the second part, the results of the media analysis are presented. Some final remarks conclude the chapter. There is neither an intention to give a comprehensive overview on all views and aspects of the ethical debate—philosophical experts have done this (e.g., Chapter Eleven of this book)—nor to comment judgementally on the different contributions of these press cuttings.
