Aggregated News
This month brought news that could alter the landscape of American pregnancy.
Tests using DNA to determine a fetus’s sex were shown to be remarkably accurate, able to tell with 95 percent certainty as early as seven weeks into pregnancy, if a woman is carrying a boy or girl. The tests, which detect the fetus’s DNA in a mother’s blood or urine, are available in drugstores and online, and reports about their accuracy are likely to increase their popularity.
But the tests also raise ethical questions: whether couples will abort fetuses of an unwanted sex — as has happened in China and India, where boys now outnumber girls. The possibility discomfits many, and is also providing fuel for anti-abortion politics.
The test is the first of an expected raft of DNA tests likely to detect disorders like Down syndrome and other genetic traits early enough in pregnancy that more women may consider abortion.
“I think over the long run this has the potential of changing attitudes toward pregnancy and to family,” said Audrey R. Chapman, a bioethicist at...
Tests using DNA to determine a fetus’s sex were shown to be remarkably accurate, able to tell with 95 percent certainty as early as seven weeks into pregnancy, if a woman is carrying a boy or girl. The tests, which detect the fetus’s DNA in a mother’s blood or urine, are available in drugstores and online, and reports about their accuracy are likely to increase their popularity.
But the tests also raise ethical questions: whether couples will abort fetuses of an unwanted sex — as has happened in China and India, where boys now outnumber girls. The possibility discomfits many, and is also providing fuel for anti-abortion politics.
The test is the first of an expected raft of DNA tests likely to detect disorders like Down syndrome and other genetic traits early enough in pregnancy that more women may consider abortion.
“I think over the long run this has the potential of changing attitudes toward pregnancy and to family,” said Audrey R. Chapman, a bioethicist at...