'Wrongful Birth' and Early Testing

Fresh Air | By Terry Gross

Published March 16, 2006 at 11:00 AM EST

Journalist Elizabeth Weil wrote a cover story for the March 12 edition of the New York Times Magazine, entitled "A Wrongful Birth?".

The article's subject is Donna Branca, a mother who gave birth to a severely handicapped child and then sued her obstetrician for neglecting to provide information that would have allowed Branca to abort the fetus prior to birth.

Weil explores the huge upturn in prenatal testing, the expanding limits of the current technology, and the ethical questions raised by the results of testing fetuses.

Weil's work has appeared in Vogue, Rolling Stone and on This American Life.

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Terry Gross

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'Wrongful Birth' and Early Testing

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