News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) According to the Jerusalem Post, a team of medical geneticists working in Jerusalem hospitals has discovered that unclear genetic tests often lead couples to opt for an abortion.  Couples are often told that their fetus carries genes for a particular disease, the researchers said, but are not told that their baby would most likely be asymptomatic or very mildly affected.

The researchers identified 83 couples who carried Gauchers disease, which in rare cases can cause neurological problems.  They found that the couples chose to end 25 percent of pregnancies, including 15 percent of those in which the baby would have been asymptomatic or mildly affected, after prenatal diagnoses via amniocentesis or chorionic villae sampling.  In contrast, only one out of 13 women carrying a baby with Gauchers chose to undergo an abortion after receiving a more complete diagnosis from a Gauchers expert.