TY - JOUR AU - Ravitsky, Vardit AU - Nguyen, Minh Thu AU - Birko, Stanislav AU - Lemoine, Marie-Eve PY - 2018 DA - 2018/04/19 TI - Moving Towards Routine Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT): Challenges Related to Women’s Autonomy JO - OBM Genetics SP - 018 VL - 02 IS - 02 AB - Women’s reproductive autonomy, and its translation into informed free choice regarding prenatal testing, is a dominant concept in the bioethical discourse concerning prenatal testing. This discourse is based on the premise that access to information regarding the pregnancy promotes autonomous decision-making. However, studies show that the offer of prenatal screening as a routine part of pregnancy care is not supported, to a large degree, by appropriate informed consent mechanisms. This means that the implementation of the concept of autonomy ought to be reconsidered. On the backdrop of these challenges, the introduction of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) may present new challenges. The main advantages of NIPT, compared with earlier technologies, (namely the early availability of results, the non-invasive and risk-free nature of the test, as well as its increased accuracy) may exacerbate threats to women’s autonomy. Four of the most likely future uses of NIPT – first-tier screening, diagnosis, expanded targeted use, and whole-genome sequencing – will continue to challenge patients’ autonomy. To shed light on these developments, this paper presents some longstanding ethical concerns regarding prenatal screening, examines what makes NIPT different from earlier screening technologies, and charts the possible future courses of NIPT, while anticipating the ethical and social implications of the various signposts potentially encountered, particularly as they relate to reproductive autonomy. SN - 2577-5790 UR - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.genet.1802018 DO - 10.21926/obm.genet.1802018 ID - Ravitsky2018 ER -