The Cultural Politics of Prenatal Screening

Summary

Future parents

MAARTEN Only when I heard the heart beating did I realise that there's really something in that belly – a living creature with marble eyes, waiting to enter the world.

LOUELLA Maarten also talks to him. Everyday he says,‘Hello, here's your father speaking!’

MAARTEN Mostly when we disagree about something.

LOUELLA Then he explains why I’m wrong.

MAARTEN Particularly when she's eating too many sweets again. (Leans towards Louella's belly) ‘Hello, so many sweets are not good for you, remember!’

LOUELLA But, what I really miss is that I can't go out for a few drinks once in a while.

MAARTEN Particularly when you see other people …

LOUELLA… having a good drink and getting tipsy.

MAARTEN It's funny to hear our parents say,‘Oh, but in our days we didn't worry about those things.’For example, Louella doesn't eat red meat either, because of the Lysteria bacteria….

LOUELLA Oh boy, no, that's toxoplasmosis, you always mix up everything.

MAARTEN … and then they almost get upset because we’re concerned about such issues. They didn't worry, and yet we are doing well, aren't we?

LOUELLA What is really difficult for me are all those ethical questions you are suddenly confronted with.

MAARTEN Like, will you take an amniocentesis or not?

LOUELLA They recommend it if you are over 36. I am 35, so I could hide behind this rule.

MAARTEN But the question is:won't you ask yourself for the rest of your life whether you evaded something that you could have done?

LOUELLA But you can't reason those things logically. It has so much to do with emotions. We will see what it brings.

(From: De Groene Amsterdammer, Dutch weekly, 29 May 1996)

Maarten and Louella: Just a modern couple, expecting their first baby, pretty excited and a bit childish. Nothing special, the usual behaviour of future parents. Nonetheless, Maarten and Louella are pregnant in a different way than their parents were. They did not worry about Lysteria bacteria and toxoplasmosis, let alone amniocentesis. Maarten and Louella do. They live in a techno- scientific world. It is this world of extended scientific knowledge and a whole range of medical technologies that generate a huge gap between Maarten and Louella and their parents. Future parents nowadays have to cope with all these new medical techniques, whether they like it or not.