PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Solveig Magnus Reindal
TI  - Disability, gene therapy and eugenics - a challenge to John Harris
AID  - 10.1136/jme.26.2.89
DP  - 2000 Apr 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 89--94
VI  - 26
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/26/2/89.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/26/2/89.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2000 Apr 01; 26
AB  - This article challenges the view of disability presented by Harris in his article, “Is gene therapy a form of eugenics?”1 It is argued that his definition of disability rests on an individual model of disability, where disability is regarded as a product of biological determinism or “personal tragedy” in the individual. Within disability theory this view is often called “the medical model” and it has been criticised for not being able to deal with the term “disability”, but only with impairment. The individual model of disability presupposes a necessary causal link between a certain condition in the individual and disablement. The shortcomings of such a view of disability are stated and it is argued that in order to have an adequate ethical discourse on gene therapy perspectives from disability research need to be taken into consideration.