Measuring a fetus’s risk for a genetic disorder is the goal of genetic screening. Screening tests determine the likelihood or peril a fetus may have specific common congenital disabilities. Still, they cannot determine whether the infant has the ailment. I believe that prenatal genetic screening is immoral and has various ethical issues for the most part, despite having multiple advantages to the process. The main reason for my opinion is that prenatal testing situations present potential difficulties for Catholic doctors. These hypothetical situations mostly hinge on the patient’s reaction to the knowledge after she has it and how strongly she feels about the viable action plan. The difficulties surround the therapeutic and moral implications of data received through intrusive testing for both the doctor and the patient.
Most of the time, “genetic screening has been more associated with this option in the collective mental, rather than the possibility to better address a specific condition, leading to the complex discussion of an ethical dilemma” (Maftei and Dânilâ 2). A genetic diagnostic test is advised to confirm that a genetic screening did not result in a false positive if it identifies pathogenic variants in the fetus. Genetic testing can produce erroneous positive results, giving parents the impression that their unborn child has congenital disabilities when they do not.
Some ethical issues have been identified in Meredith Vanstone’s et al. article “Women’s perspectives on the ethical implications of non-invasive prenatal testing: a qualitative analysis to inform health policy decisions” by women who had personal experience with prenatal genetic screening (11). Many of the problems with genetic screening are connected to self-determination and access. Participants clearly stated that each woman should be free to decide when and how she will utilize prenatal genetic screening. The main problem is that the way the procedure has been implemented limits the freedom of choice for individual women over how they wish to participate in it. This involves dissatisfaction with the insufficient and contradictory information given by medical experts. Still, it mainly relates to the absence of a more comprehensive provision of prenatal genetic screening as early in pregnancy as possible.
Works Cited
Vanstone, Meredith, et al. “Women’s perspectives on the ethical implications of non-invasive prenatal testing: a qualitative analysis to inform health policy decisions.” BMC Medical Ethics, vol. 19, no. 27, 2018.
Maftei, Alexandra and Oana Dânilâ. “The good, the bad, and the utilitarian: attitudes towards genetic testing and implications for disability.” Current Psychology, 2022.