Coping with an affected birth: genetic counseling in Saudi Arabia

Saudi parents who have received genetic counseling following the birth of a child affected by a neurometabolic disorder were interviewed during their visits to a specialist hospital. As is common in the West, understanding of heredity was often incompletely assimilated, and this was related to parental education level. Coping behaviors, however, were substantially different from those in the West. The wide range of attitudes recorded toward consanguineous marriage and future births was a reflection of the position of Saudi families in a society undergoing rapid change.