Moral Decision-Making, Narratives and Genetic Diagnostics

Information based on prenatal diagnosis (PND) may cause distress and confront potential parents with difficult choices. Four interviews of mothers in this situation of choice, performed within the EDIG project, are the basis for this article. The interviews reveal how the mothers experience the situation and how their decisions are influenced by their life stories. This article focuses on the moral aspects of their decision-making. The contextual information gives us a better insight into how human beings experience these kinds of difficult moral decisions. The stories can be interpreted in different ways. In my analysis I distinguish between explanations; what causes the decision; understanding, i.e. to trace the meaningfulness of the reasoning and justification; what is the normative motivation for the decision?