Samenvatting

Counting the costs of a certain condition such as Spina Bifida in an economic breeding farm is absurd. We are all consumers that keep the economic engines running, no matter if we are obese, or anorectics, if we do sport or if we don 't, or if we have SB as a condition, or not. Of course, there are necessary costs for SB (surgery, sometimes lifelong incontinence materials, adapted braces, etc.). But for every person, lifelong costs are incurred: food, clothing, entertainment, education, etc. Living with a disease is therefore "fuelling" the economic engine of progress. Consequently, costs cannot be calculated without taking into account the benefits (health care workers earning a living, production of new treatments and materials, etc.). The economic value of lifestyle gurus, magazines and gyms would evaporate immediately if healthy behaviour was self-evident. It’s absurd to opt for life or abortion on the basis of an economic argument. Besides, extra care and costs can only be estimated on average, and therefore do not necessarily apply to the individual in the uterus of the tested mother. Nothing is what it seems!