And yet many would agree that the tests' main purpose is to rid the population of devastating diseases like Tay Sachs - and to give parents the choice of trying for a healthy child. The British National Health Service proposed general prenatal screening for fragile X syndrome, a form of X-linked mental retardation, in 1997. The agency asserted that the tests would pay for themselves many times over by saving the cost of lifetime care for someone with the condition. Each of these conditions varies greatly in its effects on physical or mental ability. Nancy Press, a medical anthropologist known for her studies on prenatal screening and testing for adult onset disorders, worries that genetic analysis is entering general use without much attention to its implications.
Geneticists see the number of mutations piling up.
As an example, Press points to cystic fibrosis screening. By the end of the grant period three years later, interest in identifying cystic fibrosis carriers had nearly waned to nil, according to Press. But then NIH requested a consensus development conference. People were kind of astonished. A second conference led by Press added a heavy dose of caution to the proposal.