Ethical issues in fetal diagnosis and treatment

Fetal diagnosis has raised ethical issues since it was first developed in the 1940s and 1950s. Two controversial issues have predominated. First, when the techniques for prenatal diagnosis were invasive techniques, they created risks to the pregnant women. Second, prenatal diagnosis led to either prenatal treatment, which also generally had some risks to the pregnant woman, or to abortion, which has always been ethically controversial. In this article, we will review the history of ethical controversy over fetal diagnosis and discuss how they presage today's controversies.