The dynamics of family decision-making in intercultural prenatal screening

Abstract

In recent years there has been a proliferation of research in medical sociology, medical anthropology medical education, and genetic counseling literature examining the role of culture in genetic counseling (e.g. Clarke and Parsons 1997; Lewis 2002; Ota Wang 2001). This attention to culture may be attributed to the fact that genetic counseling encounters involving participants from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are increasingly becoming the norm due to due to globalization of health care and an increasing migration of professional workforce and clients around the world. A common theme emerging from these studies is that culture has a significant impact on the decision-making and the outcomes of genetic counseling. However, most of these existing studies tend to view culture as a static concept and make ...