Study title

This project proposed a new approach to explore ethical issues arising from the clinical implementation of genomics in antenatal care in the twenty first century. Situated at the interface between sociology, bioethics and law/social policy this research seeks to gain in-depth understanding of the situations in which these questions emerge and are experienced by the key-stakeholders (health professionals, patients, scientists, policy-makers), and provide insight into the underlying value systems which promote them. This comparative investigation takes non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in England, France and Germany as a case study. NIPT is a rapidly developing genomic technology that is constantly widening its scope and opening up new possibilities in reproductive medicine. These data are part of a wider comparative study combining a literature review and an empirical research (semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders, including pregnant women/couples and health professionals) to explore the ethical issues arising from prenatal genetics and genomics in England, France and Germany.This project proposes a new approach to explore ethical issues arising from the clinical implementation of genomics in antenatal care in the twenty first century. Situated at the interface between sociology, bioethics and law/social policy this research seeks to gain in-depth understanding of the situations in which these questions emerge and are experienced by the key-stakeholders (health professionals, patients, scientists, policy-makers), and provide insight into the underlying value systems which promote them. This comparative investigation takes non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in England, France and Germany as a case study. NIPT is a rapidly developing genomic technology that is constantly widening its scope and opening up new possibilities in reproductive medicine. Since 2011, NIPT, which uses cell-free foetal DNA in the maternal blood, has been commercially...