Today, average life expectancy for a person with CF is 32 years. Some live far longer, some far less. There's no treatment. They die by age 2. People don't have too much trouble about the concept of terminating those fetuses.
CF can be a somewhat variable disease.
Some patients are only mildly affected. Centers that offer population-based screening say health plans generally have been covering it. The test is simple to do, requiring only a blood sample or a cheek swab. Generally, only if both parents test positive do they need to have a lengthy discussion with a genetics counselor. David Witt, a medical geneticist at Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, says it's far less costly to perform screening in-house, as his plan does.