The recent Wall Street Journal report by Christopher Weaver on Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening (NIPS) included a number that suggests how much money is in the NIPS market. But what else should that money be going towards? Continue Reading
April 15, 2013
Is the ISPD statement unjustified?
Continuing the series of posts on the new International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis's (ISPD) policy statement on prenatal testing for aneuploidy, I will seek to answer the questions prompted by that statement. In doing so, it leads to the ultimate question of whether the ISPD statement is unjustified? Continue Reading
April 11, 2013
Does the ISPD have its own version of Voldemort?
The International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis (ISPD) has issued a new position statement on prenatal testing for Down syndrome. I have reported on what the statement says in the past several posts. Now, we turn a critical eye to the statement to provide an ethical assessment of it. What is most glaring is what is not stated in the new statement. I wonder if the ISPD has it's own version of Voldemort. Continue Reading
April 9, 2013
Happy birthday, Baby Doe
Today would have been Baby Doe's birthday. But, when Baby Doe was born in 1982, he was born with Down syndrome and his doctor believed some individuals with Down syndrome were "mere blobs." The doctor's medical advice to Baby Doe's parents was that they should let their child die from lack of care. I wrote about this in 2010. Re-reading the column, I was reminded of then-current examples of these views still being expressed and practiced. Lest we think this attitude towards withholding care to Continue Reading
March 28, 2013
The nonmaleficent role of NIPT
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 11, 2013
Paradoxical Genes
I had reason to refer to a column of mine, published a few years ago, called "My Daughter's Paradoxical Genes." It addresses the paradox of the ACOG recommendation that all women be offered prenatal testing for Down syndrome, but a separate ACOG ethics committee condemns the use of prenatal testing for sex selective abortion. The column remains one of my favorites, and the paradox still has yet to be explained by ACOG. You can read the full article at this link. Continue Reading
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