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SIDAVEERAPPA B. TUPPAD
LECTURER
DEPT. OF PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
SAJJALASHREE INSTITUTE OF NURSING SCIENCES,
NAVANAGAR-BAGALKOT
Genetic counseling
• Any person may seek out genetic counseling for a condition they may have
inherited from their biological parents.
• A woman may be referred for genetic counseling if pregnant and
undergoing prenatal testing or screening. Genetic counselors educate the
patient about their testing options and inform them of their results. If a
prenatal screening or test is abnormal, the genetic counselor evaluates the
risk of an affected pregnancy, educates the patient about these risks and
informs the patient of their options.
• A person may also undergo genetic counseling after the birth of a child
with a genetic condition. In these instances, the genetic counselor explains
the condition to the patient along with recurrence risks in future children.
In all cases of a positive family history for a condition, the genetic
counselor can evaluate risks, recurrence and explain the condition itself.
Genetic counselors as support
• A proposal for guidelines for PND, genetic counselling and screening has
been made. The proposal assumes that consensus exists among medical
geneticists, obstetricians and parents about some key ethical principles
and approaches to difficult choices: (1) Parental autonomy in abortion
choices; (2) Non-directive counselling; (3) PND that must be provided
when parents need the information to prepare themselves for the birth of
a possibly affected child; (4) Practitioners need to disclose to the consultee
the risks and benefits of each procedure in PND; (5) Information of XY
females and XX males with great care that casts no ambiguity on the
patient’s social and phenotypic sexual identity; (6) In case putative father
is not the biological father of the foetus, the mother to be informed first
to avoid social problems and she may be left to take final decision; (7)
Medical geneticists to decide which of the disorders warrants the options
of prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy, and (8) Consequences
from the above to be evaluated in terms of basic ethical principles, and
critical tests of what is best for the individuals, groups and societ
Conclusions