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Date of Publication: July 01, 2000
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Counselling for thalassaemia
Abstract:
This audit of the counselling process for couples in the UK whose pregnancies were affected by a major thalassaemia sought to measure how and when genetic risk was identified for each couple, and whether and when prenatal diagnosis was offered. The findings: standard practice of prenatal screening and counselling for haemoglobin disorders was not followed in a large proportion of the couples interviewed, resulting in a number of couples giving birth to a child with thalassaemia major. If they had been offered prenatal diagnosis, some of these couples would have terminated their pregnancies. Although antenatal screening and counselling for haemoglobin disorders are standard practices in the United Kingdom, they are delivered inadequately and inequitably. An explicit national policy is needed, to make early prenatal diagnosis available to all couples.
Copyright and license ©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2016: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
