Ethical Practice in Prenatal Screening – Can Informed

As the technological capacity to diagnose certain conditions prenatally expands, and more asymptomatic women are exposed to routine forms of prenatal screening, increasing emphasis is being placed on the garnering of informed consent within existing testing regimes to confer ethical legitimisation to this routine medical intervention. But while the garnering of informed consent has been incorporated into prenatal routines, recent studies show that for most women the purpose, practicalities and potential outcomes of the tests they have ‘consented ’ to are poorly understood. Indeed most have simply followed the prescribed normative pathway without question. These findings contradict assertions of ‘informed ’ engagement and thus cast doubt on the ethical validity of the currently accepted protocols. Closer consideration of the underlying assumptions of autonomy, on which informed consent is based reveals that the individualistic notions embedded do not reflect the relational way in which people interact. When applied in a context that offer