Essay On Prenatal Testing

There are plenty of available prenatal tests that can be done in order to determine certain things regarding a fetus. Some of these tests are necessary however, some are not, and although, they may be able to provide valuable information, they can also carry risks, even if they may be small. For instance, an amniocentesis is done to screen for birth defects and chromosome abnormality by inserting a needle through the mother’s abdomen and retrieving amniotic fluid. Although, the risk of a miscarriage due to this procedure is small, roughly, as per statistics, one in two hundred, that is still a huge risk for a mother to take. Other possible complications that could occur due to amniocentesis are “injury to the baby or mother, infection, and preterm labor.” (WebMD, 2016) I believe another risk involved with prenatal testing is stress and anxiety. Say prenatal testing is done and the fetus tests positive for down syndrome. Obviously, this is not the
One issue, in particular, involves the mother and her control over the decisions made about her pregnancy. Some feel that with prenatal testing and diagnosis, a mother loses the control over her fetus and feels perhaps, compelled to do things that she ordinarily wouldn’t if she were not being influenced by other factors. Another issue that arises from prenatal testing includes false-positive and false-negative results. This, then, requires mothers to make decisions based on results that perhaps, are not accurate. Perhaps, the mother makes a decision that she later regrets because she didn’t have the full set of information in front of her. This can then lead to guilt, shame and depression. Genetic testing, in and of itself, is another area that gets a lot of attention in regards to ethical issues. This topic always has, and probably always will, raise ethical questions and be a controversial