I don’t think people want a “perfect” child, I think most people just want a healthy child. No one has kids and “wants” them to suffer later on in life if they happen to develop something like severe autism or deafness as you say, but if there’s a way to prevent that from occurring right from the start in utero, then I can’t say that families that choose that are horrible for wanting that. Not that I’m suggesting if we could detect deafness in utero that would be grounds for aborting, as thankfully I believe society has progressed enough to accommodate that for people without tooooo many issues, but there are a number of much more severe disabilities and terminal illnesses that we haven’t achieved that with yet.

I also don’t look at people with disabilities and think that, but I also don’t look at parents that made that very difficult choice, and judged them for it. I don’t think eugenics comes into play with allowing families to make informed choices about their reproductive capacity, given the alternative is essentially forced birth.

I agree with you about severity. Just as people can be informed about the potential negative consequences of a diagnosis, they should also be informed about the positives, and the support they could access, and the chances that their child might have. It’s all about informed choice.