A Comparison of Parental and Non-Parental Attitudes Towards Prenatal Screening.

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A Comparison of Parental and Non-Parental Attitudes Towards Prenatal Screening.

Abstract

Prenatal genetic screening has been offered by health authorities in the UK for over twenty years in order to identify those at a higher than average risk of having a child with a disability so that the parents may be offered genetic testing to give more specific information about the health of the foetus and define the risk for future pregnancies.  However with the continual advances of the Human Genome Project, there is an increasing trend towards more parental control over a child’s characteristics.  The aims of this study were to examine the attitudes of parents and non-parents towards the subject of prenatal screening in order to evaluate if parental views parallel those of the rest of society.  

247 participants (consisting of 125 parents and 122 non-parents) were involved in this study and were selected by opportunity quota sampling.  They were allocated to one of two groups, parents or non-parents.  Each group completed a similar questionnaire based on their attitudes to, amongst other things, prenatal screening.  The answers from six of the questions were then scored depending on which answer was chosen.

Analysis of the selected data was carried out using a t test, however there was no significant difference found (t(245)=1.38; p≤ 0.05). With a one tailed hypothesis, a critical value of 1.645 was found, therefore the null hypothesis was rejected in favour of the alternate hypothesis that parents will not have a more positive attitude towards prenatal screening than non-parents.

The result indicated that parental attitudes towards prenatal screening closely mirror that of society as a whole.  Both groups scoring within the middle range also indicated that neither group has a heavily biased view either for or against prenatal screening.  There is a need for further research in the field of prenatal genetic screening and its manipulation.  With its inherent benefits as well as its potential for abuse, it is an important area of research, and will remain so for some time.

Introduction

Prenatal genetic screening has been offered by health authorities in the UK for over twenty years (BMA, 1998).  It is frequently used as a means of identifying those at a higher than average risk of having a child with a disability so that the parents may be offered genetic testing to give more specific information about the health of the foetus and define the risk for future pregnancies.  Prenatal screening might be by family history, serum screening, molecular tests, or ultrasound.  Ultrasound scanning is currently offered routinely to all pregnant women in the UK and, although it is undertaken to monitor the development of the foetus, it can detect both major and minor defects (Green, Snowdon and Statham, 1993).

Green and Statham (1996) noted that an important distinction between the views of obstetricians and patients about prenatal diagnosis is that the obstetricians saw the tests as a way of detecting abnormality, whereas parents saw them as offering reassurance.  It is likely that this desire for reassurance influences many people’s decisions to undergo both screening and diagnostic tests and that a favourable result is expected.  A diagnosis of serious foetal abnormality is statistically rare: over 98 percent of all women who are tested ultimately will receive good news (Burke, Caplan and Kolker, 1998, p7).  However in such rare pregnancies, parents then face the difficult decision of whether to continue with the pregnancy or to terminate within legal boundaries.

As a result of the Human Genome Project, knowledge of the genetic basis of disease has been exploding.  Hopes run high for understanding the mechanisms that cause genetic diseases and eventually for treatments or even cures.  This promise, however, still lies in the remote future.  For the present and the near future, the new genetic knowledge will be applied in the medical field primarily through prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion.  Although research is continuing to develop methods of detecting genetic disorders at an earlier stage, the most feasible option for prenatal diagnosis now and for the foreseeable future, is testing during pregnancy (Russo and Cove 1995).

Murray (1991) noted that the trend towards more parental control over a child’s characteristics will increase in the future, and that scientists will soon have methods of identifying more disease-causing genes as well as the DNA that produces characteristics such as height, athletic ability, and perhaps even behaviour.  Most ethicists see no problem with parents trying to avoid a genetic disease in their offspring.  Rothman (1998) does however argue that parents should leave the selection of non-disease traits to fate.

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Ultimately society in general pays the costs for the choices undertaken by parents whether in terms of future health costs, attitudinal changes towards the disabled, or even the possibility of eugenics.  Society also plays a role in the formation of laws that determine the circumstances in which a pregnancy can legally be terminated.  Therefore it is important that the view of society as a whole is in line with that of parents and vice versa.

There is currently very little research available on parental attitudes towards prenatal screening in comparison with non-parental attitudes i.e. the rest of society, ...

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