ABSTRACT
Fetal medicine is a highly dynamic specialty. Advances in this field promise everincreasing opportunities for prevention and treatment, resulting in real benefits for future children, prospective parents and society as a whole. At the same time, it is widely felt that developments in fetal medicine raise all sorts of moral and societal questions that need ethical scrutiny. The aim of this chapter is to contribute to this ethical reflection, focusing on ethical debates and regulations in Europe. Clearly, there is no single ‘‘European view.’’ While there may be a strong consensus on some of the relevant issues, regulations in European countries vary substantially. This chapter does not provide a systematic, exhaustive inventory and comparison of ethical debates and regulations regarding fetal medicine in Europe, but a selective overview, highlighting some of the major trends and controversies. We concentrate on the following topics: prenatal diagnosis (PD), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), prenatal screening, and fetal/in utero research.
