Journal Article

Advances in prenatal screening: the ethical dimension

Frints, Suzanna G. M., de Wert, Guido M. W. R., Dondorp, Wybo J., de Jong, Antina, de Die-Smulders, Christine E. M.

2011

Overview

Technological advances are driving rapid changes in prenatal screening: for example, the use of genome-wide molecular tests for diagnostic follow-up and the pending introduction of non-invasive testing. These advances raise difficult ethical questions about issues such as meaningful reproductive choice, equity of access and the proportionality of testing. Prenatal screening strategies are undergoing rapid changes owing to the introduction of new testing techniques. The overall tendency is towards broadening the scope of prenatal testing through increasingly sensitive ultrasound scans and genome-wide molecular tests. In addition, non-invasive prenatal diagnosis is likely to be introduced in the near future. These developments raise important ethical questions concerning meaningful reproductive choice, the autonomy rights of future children, equity of access and the proportionality of testing.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 692/700/139 / Abortion / Abortion, Eugenic / Agriculture / Aneuploidy / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Biological and medical sciences / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Cancer Research / Child / Chromosome Aberrations / Diagnostic tests / Ethics / Ethics, Medical / Female / Fetuses / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Gene Function / Genetic Association Studies - methods / Genetic Testing / Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution / Genomes / Health aspects / Human Genetics / Humans / Infant, Newborn / Karyotyping / Neonatal Screening - ethics / Patient Rights - ethics / Pregnancy / Pregnant women / Prenatal diagnosis / Prenatal Diagnosis - ethics / Prenatal Diagnosis - methods / Risk assessment / science-and-society / Sequence Analysis, DNA / Ultrasonic imaging / Ultrasound imaging