ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on moral dilemmas and decision-making conflicts in prenatal genetic testing. It addresses a characterization of the moral dilemmas involved in prenatal genetic testing discusses the dilemmatic situation in case of a conspicuous test result. Moral dilemmas are conflicting situations in which a person ought to do each of two things but cannot do both; or ought to avoid two things but cannot avoid both. Facing a dilemmatic situation implying a conflict between two moral norms, a person may wish that he or she had never got into the situation, that the facts had been otherwise. Depending on the individuals’ situation, the condition in question and the duration of the pregnancy, the extent to which the decision-making conflict can be described as dilemmatic, varies considerably. The various methods of prenatal diagnosis serve to identify foetal anomalies during pregnancies.
