New Down Syndrome Test to be Used For Abortion

LONDON, Sep 28, 01 (CWNews.com) - The first genetic testing service in Britain's National Health Service to detect conditions such as Down syndrome has been criticized by pro-life groups as yet another excuse for aborting unborn children.

The new system means that instead of waiting the standard two weeks for results from prenatal tests, parents can be told in less than two days if their unborn child has a risk of disability, reports the medical journal The Lancet.

But the development has drawn criticism from pro-life groups who regard faster testing as just another way to "track down" and abort babies with disabilities. Others have raised concerns about availability of counseling to parents.

The new procedure, called quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), offers reliable results in just over one working day, according to researchers at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospital in London-- the first National Health Service facility to use the test.

Carol Boys, head of the Down Syndrome Association, said she was concerned about counseling being made available in a timely fashion for parents. "We strongly believe that any program of testing for a genetic condition must be accompanied by non-directive counseling," she said. "Appropriate support must be provided regardless of the choices made."

Paul Danon, spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: "It's one thing to find out how a child might be helped to develop. It's quite another to screen them knowing that you could well abort them if a problem is found." He said that research resources would be better spent on therapies for disabled children.

CWN - Catholic World News
28. september 2001