Publisher: Matthias Media

A new book seeks to extend public debate about ethics and the beginning of human life, raising questions about the increasing expectations of what we want in our children.

Author and medical ethicist Dr Megan Best, says she was overwhelmed with people asking questions about ethics and the ‘beginning of life’.  Her new book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made is an attempt to guide people in making informed decisions about issues including contraception, abortion, pregnancy screening and assisted reproduction.

According to Best, medical science is moving faster than ethics discussions, with many Christians and others in the community left uninformed about their choices. She says community discussion on issues like pregnancy screening are long overdue.

“If there’s any category of abortion that’s increasing among Australian Christians, it’s abortion for disability,” Best told Eternity in August. “A pregnant woman is screened for abnormalities [like down syndrome] in the foetus, but they’re often not aware of the purpose of the test. Then they’re told there’s something wrong, and the medical suggestion is to abort. They’re caught off guard; they haven’t thought about this.”

“We need to raise the educational levels of Christians and others to be more in touch with what’s going on, and what opportunities they have to say they don’t want a particular test in the first place.”

Best says routine pregnancy screening tests in Australia that look for abnormalities are a big problem. “We haven’t had a community discussion about whether every baby with abnormalities should be aborted.”

As our ability to detect problems before birth improves, our expectations of what we want in our children increases, says Best.

“It is not just a matter between a doctor and a patient. We are at a point where we are deciding as a society what we require of a child before they are granted full membership to our society.”

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made is written in discrete chapters on each reproductive issue, but incorporates a narrative that links the issues together, beginning with the topic of when human life beings.

For more information on the book, click here.

Featured image: sxc.hu/bakyrul