Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Introduction
- 14 Ethical dilemmas in the care of pregnant women: rethinking “maternal–fetal conflicts”
- 15 Prenatal testing and newborn screening
- 16 Assisted reproduction
- 17 Respectful involvement of children in medical decision making
- 18 Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions
- 19 Child abuse and neglect
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
15 - Prenatal testing and newborn screening
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Introduction
- 14 Ethical dilemmas in the care of pregnant women: rethinking “maternal–fetal conflicts”
- 15 Prenatal testing and newborn screening
- 16 Assisted reproduction
- 17 Respectful involvement of children in medical decision making
- 18 Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions
- 19 Child abuse and neglect
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
Summary
Ms. C is 34 and she is getting married for the first-time. She tells her obstetrician/gynecologist that she and Mr. D are hoping to conceive quickly. Both Ms. C and Mr. D are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Ms. C's physician recommends that she undergo prenatal testing for a number of diseases more common in people of Jewish ancestry. Currently, the Ashkenazi Jewish panel includes up to 10 conditions depending on the laboratory (Leib et al., 2005). The conditions include severe conditions such as Tay Sachs disease and more mild conditions such as Gaucher disease type 1. Ms. C has never heard of any of the conditions, but she agrees to follow her physician's advice.
E is a healthy full-term infant male, who was born 24 hours ago. The nurses inform you that E's mother refused routine vitamin K supplementation given intramuscularly and the hepatitis B immunization because she does not want to put her son through any more discomfort than the birth process. You come to draw the newborn screen for phenylketonuria and other metabolic conditions before discharge, but she refuses.
What is prenatal testing and newborn screening?
Prenatal testing includes a number of clinical tools to provide reproductive information to individuals or couples either preconception or during pregnancy about their risks of having a child with a health disorder or condition. Prenatal testing involves a number of different types of test including genetic carrier testing, ultrasound, amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS), or preimplantation genetic diagnosis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 104 - 111Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008