Required for blood test for Down syndrome ban

Massive criticism of the blood test for prenatal diagnostics

05/07/2012

The upcoming introduction of a blood test for prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome meets with massive resistance. The „Prenatal blood test for Down syndrome is not a valid diagnostic agent according to the Genetic Diagnostics Act“, This is the opinion of the Federal Government's Commissioner for the Disabled, Huber Hüppe.

Hüppe bases his position on a legal opinion published today by the lawyer Prof. Klaus Ferdinand Gärditz of the University of Bonn. This had classified the blood test for prenatal diagnostics of trisomy 21 as illegal, according to the Disability Commissioner. In the genetic diagnosis law are „for such improper prenatal examinations, including possible criminal consequences“, it says in the current press release. The test discriminates people with Down syndrome in the worst conceivable form, „namely in their right to life“, criticized Hüppe.

Disability Commissioner criticizes dragnets for people with Down syndrome
As federal commissioner for the interests of handicapped people Hubert Hüppe (CDU) practiced massive criticism of the company's new blood test „LifeCodexx“. The „PraenaTest“, whose development was funded by the Federal Government with over 200,000 euros serve „neither medical nor therapeutic purposes“, which contradicts the gene diagnostics law, since „just these purposes for a valid prenatal examination“ according to the Communication of the Federal Government's Disability Commissioner. Down syndrome, however, is not treatable or curable. According to Hüppe it is the blood test „almost exclusively for the selection of people with Down syndrome“, which amounts to discrimination in the worst form, namely the right to life. Already today, in more than 90 percent of the cases, an abortion is performed when prenatal diagnosis detects trisomy 21 in the offspring. „With the new supposedly simpler test is to be feared that the dragnet for people with Down's syndrome will be reinforced“, so Hüppe on. The Disability Commissioner called on countries to halt the introduction of the blood test for prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21.

Launch of the new blood test later this month
The Konstanz company „LifeCodexx“ plans to introduce the test in July of this year, with the procedure being initially offered in about 20 practices and prenatal centers throughout Germany, explained the spokeswoman for the company, Elke Decker „TIME Online“. Decker also emphasized the benefits of the new procedure, which detects trisomy 21 in a blood sample of pregnant women and eliminates the risky amniotic fluid examination in many cases. Thought is the „PraenaTest“ for women from the twelfth week of pregnancy, in which, for example, in the course of the first-trimester screening, a striking finding was made. If there is an increased risk of embryo chromosome changes, the blood test can provide clarity. So far, in such high-risk pregnancies an amniocentesis or a puncture of the mother cake was the only diagnostic method, but in these forms of the procedure through the abdominal wall was always a significant risk to the unborn child. According to the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG), about ten out of every 1,000 women lose their healthy child as a result of these interventions. In the run-up to the blood test for prenatal diagnostics, the advice of a qualified physician is compulsory according to the Gene Diagnostics Act. The cost of the test must be borne by the patients themselves.

Blood test questions the right to life of people with Down syndrome
However, according to the Federal Government's Disability Commissioner, mothers will only receive the new test „suggested a lower-risk method for prenatal diagnosis“, even the professional association of established prenatal diagnosticians does not assume that invasive methods such as amniocentesis with the blood test become superfluous. At the same time, however, rise „the pressure on women to carry out the allegedly less risky test and to ablate it already in case of conspicuous findings“, criticized Hüppe. In his view, must be „Women who have a child with Down syndrome, in the future even more justify.“ The Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe for people with intellectual disabilities, which criticized the new methods of prenatal diagnostics in March, came to a similar conclusion. The blood test for the early detection of trisomy 21 questions the right to life of people with Down syndrome. „Irrespective of the legal assessment, the Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe considers the so-called Präna test highly problematic“, stressed the federal chairman of the Lebenshilfe, Robert Antretter, and added: „We have long been calling for an ethical debate on new prenatal testing and more information on trisomy 21.“

Prenatal diagnostics in total in the review
Contrary to the assessment of the Disability Commissioner of the Federal Government and the Federal Association Lebenshilfe for people with intellectual disabilities sees the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics in the new test „no ethical dam break“, because existing methods such as amniocentesis would be used for the same purpose. A sudden increase in pregnancy conflicts is not to be feared in the view of the DGGG. The President of the German Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, sees in the novel test even clear advantages and explained that the current criticism rather „the prenatal diagnosis and its consequences in general“ in the sights, than the actual effects of the blood test. To this end, however, the results of the Ethics Council should be awaited, which is currently working on behalf of the Federal Government with the open questions around gene diagnostics and will prepare an opinion. (Fp)

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Picture: Rainer Sturm