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theses

Our aim was to assess patient opinions on prenatal genetic testing to determine which health risks, physical traits, and genetic conditions patients are interested in learning about their unborn child. We analyzed factors such as religion, education, and familiarity with disability to assess whether these influence patient preferences on fetal testing and termination of pregnancy due to a diagnosis. We categorized conditions as benign, mild, moderate and severe. We found that patients were highly motivated to learn about a range of fetal conditions including benign, mild, moderate, and severe conditions via non-invasive testing. However, they were generally only interested in follow up diagnostic fetal testing for severe fetal indications. We found that patients who did not indicate a religious affiliation were 7.5 times more likely to consider/pursue termination due to a fetal indication than those individuals with a religious affiliation. A patient’s level of education and familiarity with disability were not significant factors in determining preferences for prenatal testing and termination for fetal indications. For adult onset conditions, patients were highly motivated for fetal screening using non-invasive technology, but were less inclined to pursue follow up diagnostic testing and significantly less likely to pursue termination, if a fetus was confirmed to be at risk. This raises an ethnical consideration on whether prospective parents have the right to have this information for adult onset conditions. Our data shows some interesting insight into the type of information prospective parents may be interested in learning about their unborn child.

ETD_10788

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-rrw1-xx35

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.