Bioethical Opinion I think that the prenatal screening and diagnostic tests for Down syndrome are ethical if they are performed for the correct reasons. I believe that it is important for parents to be prepared to care for a child who will likely have physical and mental disabilities so the child will get the best care. The screening tests would allow parents to do research prior to the birth of their child so they can learn as much as they can about Down syndrome and discuss therapies for their child with their physician. Also, if parents do not feel that they can care for a child with Down syndrome, this would give them time to arrange an adoption. However, since I believe that all people have a right to life, it would be unethical to use the tests results to abort a child with Down syndrome. Similarly, I think that preimplantation genetic testing and screening are unethical since only unaffected embryos are implanted and other are discarded. …show more content…
However, I would not agree to the prenatal testing due to the invasiveness of the procedure and risk of miscarriage. I would also not agree to PGT since the procedure uses IVF and only healthy embryos are implanted. The methods used in PGT do not align with my views on when life begins. Most of the testing and procedures for Down syndrome only involve the women. My husband would have the option to perform genetic testing to determine if he has any genetic abnormalities that could affect our child. I would like for him to complete this testing so we could be prepared and informed of the chances of our child having a chromosomal abnormality. Also, my husband would be involved in the IVF portion of PGT if I agreed to this procedure. However, I would not want him to participate in PGT either due to the compromise of our beliefs about the right to