At last week's ACMG Annual Clinical Meeting, I presented a poster titled "The Ethics of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing." It turns out that the logic of my argument could very well be reflected in practice guidelines that are soon-to-be-released. I doubt the force of my abstract submitted last winter is to account for the change. But, it is a bit ironic that because NIPT will cause a test with risk to potentially have greater risk, NIPT has justified itself being inserted as a step before the test Continue Reading
March 25, 2013
Why is there prenatal testing for Down syndrome?
At my very first national medical conference, I received an answer to the question: why is there prenatal testing for Down syndrome? I have shared the response I received in many presentations. At last week’s ACMG conference, I learned of another reason. It struck me as profound. I wonder what you think about it. Continue Reading
January 17, 2013
A Dream of a Brighter Future
Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It seems fitting to observe on this holiday honoring the great civil rights leader what many have called the next civil rights movement. The new wave of prenatal testing advances has brought into focus what we mean by America's creed that all are created equal. Continue Reading
December 4, 2012
Verinata’s Prenatal Testing Flow Chart: Unethical?
As I’ve mentioned before, on the home page there is a scroll of my twitter feed. Like this blog, I typically tweet about news related to Down syndrome and/or prenatal testing. But, sometimes Twitter’s 140-character limit is not enough to provide a thorough analysis of ethical issues. Verinata is a laboratory that developed its version of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which has the brand name "verifi." Featured on its website is the following decision-making flow chart for prenatal Continue Reading
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