命の選別の問題を提起する障害当事者・家族の運動と社会の人々の学び

―イギリスの「Don’t Screen Us Out！」の実践に着目して―

抄録

  This study focuses on the activities of a UK organization of people with disabilities and their families during the new era of eugenics.

  In the UK, the Abortion Act allows for selective abortion on the grounds of fetal disability, and techniques of prenatal testing have rapidly developed. Noninvasive prenatal genetic testing was introduced for screening test in the 2020s.

  In this context, a campaign called Don’t Screen Us Out (DSUO) was launched by people with Down syndrome and their families. The participants in the DSUO movement developed their position, rooted in their having been treated as equal with other nondisabled people, and began working on court cases to alter the Abortion Act and its treatment of the life of an unborn child with a disability as less valuable than another’s life.

  This group has also worked to raise awareness in the wider community. Some medical professionals and new parents have changed their perceptions and practice in response to DSUO campaigns. Some people in society have also recognized that the provisions of the law discriminate against people with disabilities, and some have become supporters of the campaign.

  This study showed that people with disabilities in the UK have raised their voices against reproductive selection, challenging its widespread use and encouraging people in society to learn and change.