Reproductive Risks And Prenatal Diagnosis

"For pregnant women in the 1990s, technological developments have ushered in new and expanding reproductive genetic testing options. Some herald these procedures as advances providing women with previously unavailable information about their pregnancies. Others contend that with this surge of information come increasing and perhaps unwarranted obligations: while some women have greater knowledge about their pregnancies, they also face far more complex decisions and a greater pressure to do as much as is technologically possible to ensure the birth of a healthy child." "This book focuses on the major women's issues surrounding the development and application of reproductive genetic testing. Although much has been written about the biological safety and efficacy of these technologies, few publications have addressed their psychological, sociocultural, ethical, legal, and political impact on women and their experience of pregnancy." "The first of three sections provides the contextual framework in which the debate should be analyzed. The second section sets forth the philosophical foundations and complex ethical and legal questions that need to be addressed, and the final section delineates a variety of perspectives on the psychological and sociocultural issues raised by reproductive genetic testing. These fourteen essays on the cutting edge of the debate are essential reading for anyone interested in women's studies, human genetics, health law; and bioethics and prenatal care providers."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This issue provides a timely update for for the ob/gyn on genetics in reproductive medicine. Dr. Dugoff has created an issue with the goals of providing the most currently clinical information on genetic screening and prenatal genetics. Top authors have written reviews on the following topics: Genetic counseling overview for the ob/gyn; Cell-free DNA screening for aneuploidy; Cell-free DNA screening for single gene disorders; The use of microarray in prenatal diagnosis; Whole exome sequencing: Applications in prenatal diagnosis; Screening for aneuploidy in multiple gestations: The challenges and available options; Expanded carrier screening; Ethnicity-based carrier screening overview; Prenatal genetic diagnosis and prenatal genetic screening; Ethical issues in prenatal genetics; Ultrasound findings and associated genetic syndromes; Hereditary cancers in gynecology: and What physicians should know about genetic testing, screening and risk reduction. Readers will come away with the knowledge they need to diagnose, treat, and manage patients based on the most current evidence and data.

A comprehensive reference on diagnosis and evaluation of reproductive risks and genetically related high-risk pregnancies. Authored by international group of experts, this book is organized according to diagnostic method, source of reproductive risk, and system under evaluation. Features the latest imaging technology, a review of genetics, molecular biology, and cytogenetics, and special chapters on counseling, cross-cultural, legal, and ethical issues.

Since the late nineteenth century, medicine has sought to foster the birth of healthy children by attending to the bodies of pregnant women, through what we have come to call prenatal care. Women, and not their unborn children, were the initial focus of that medical attention, but prenatal diagnosis in its present form, which couples scrutiny of the fetus with the option to terminate pregnancy, came into being in the early 1970s. Tangled Diagnoses examines the multiple consequences of the widespread diffusion of this medical innovation. Prenatal testing, Ilana Löwy argues, has become mainly a risk-management technology—the goal of which is to prevent inborn impairments, ideally through the development of efficient therapies but in practice mainly through the prevention of the birth of children with such impairments. Using scholarship, interviews, and direct observation in France and Brazil of two groups of professionals who play an especially important role in the production of knowledge about fetal development—fetopathologists and clinical geneticists—to expose the real-life dilemmas prenatal testing creates, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the sociopolitical conditions of biomedical innovation, the politics of women’s bodies, disability, and the ethics of modern medicine.

This book is all about reproductive genetics, a sociological concept developed to define the use of DNA-based technologies in the medical management and supervision of reproduction and pregnant women. In a searching analysis, Elizabeth Ettorre uncovers the hidden social processes involved in the development of these technologies. Focussing on prenatal screening, she explores how the key concepts of gender and the body are intertwined with the process of building genetic knowledge and some of the unintended consequences for women. These include the injection of biology into social relationships and the development of a gendered discourse of shame and stigmatisation in which the perfect body becomes idealised and new conceptions of disability are shaped. It becomes clear that the modernist tradition of scientific disinterestedness is being replaced by a new ethic: the making of moral judgements by scientists. Reproductive Genetics, Gender and the Body draws on interviews with European medical, legal and nursing professionals and raises important issues around the gendered, female body, the site of genetic capital. It challenges professional and scholar alike to grapple with and think through their responsibilities in this complex field where the competing issues have yet to be resolved.

This book aims to expand the awareness and understanding of the emotional sequelae of prenatal/preimplantation diagnosis, prenatal decision-making, pregnancy interruption for fetal anomaly, multifetal reduction for high-order multifetal pregnancies and preimplantation choices involving the selection of embryos. Featuring a multi-disciplinary approach, it examines prenatal and preimplantation diagnosis from medical, legal, ethical and psychosocial perspectives. Prenatal and Preimplantation Diagnosis is an excellent resource for obstetricians, reproductive endocrinologists, clinical geneticists, genetic counselors and mental health professionals seeking to better support patients faced with difficult choices.

Raising hopes for disease treatment and prevention, but also the specter of discrimination and "designer genes," genetic testing is potentially one of the most socially explosive developments of our time. This book presents a current assessment of this rapidly evolving field, offering principles for actions and research and recommendations on key issues in genetic testing and screening. Advantages of early genetic knowledge are balanced with issues associated with such knowledge: availability of treatment, privacy and discrimination, personal decision-making, public health objectives, cost, and more. Among the important issues covered: Quality control in genetic testing. Appropriate roles for public agencies, private health practitioners, and laboratories. Value-neutral education and counseling for persons considering testing. Use of test results in insurance, employment, and other settings.