Prof. Martina Cornel co-authors a paper in Nat Rev Genet
06 Oct 2009
Recently a paper was published in Nat Rev Genet that was co-authored by professor of Community Genetics & Public Health Genomics, Martina Cornel. The paper entitiled 'The expansion of newborn screening: is reproductive benefit an appropriate pursuit?' argues that direct medical benefit used to be the traditional primary goal of newborn screening programs. However, recent expansions of these programs include outcomes for which reproductive benefit is a goal. This is the case for carrier status information and untreatable disorders. Discussion is needed whether that demands a different approach to informed consent. In clinical genetics, informed decision making is the standard for reproductive choices. Newborn screening in many countries is mandatory, which is the opposite. Strategies need to be developed to inform (future) parents and enable informed decision making for receiving reproductive risk information.
Read the article in Nature Reviews Genetics