Counselling about genetic disease: an Islamic perspective

Genetic counselling is the process by which an individual or a family obtains information about a genetic condition that may affect them, so that they can take the appropriate decisions about marriage, reproduction and health management. Islamic teaching encourages counselling and stresses that the counsellor should be considerate, compassionate and should keep the secrets of the person or family involved. He/she should not impose his/her views on the clients. Some Arab countries encourage premarital medical examination to detect carriers of common hereditary diseases such as thalassaemia. However, this is still controversial, as it infringes the human rights of individuals. Reproductive options open to carriers of hereditary diseases are outlined in this paper, such as prenatal diagnosis, adoption, donation of a sperm, ova or preembryo and preimplantation diagnosis, and their acceptability within Islam is discussed.