ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to examine ethical conflicts and dilemmas in the context of genetic and prenatal diagnostics. It focuses on the central outcome measure for the study, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). This is a self-assessment scale developed for detecting states of depression and anxiety in the setting of a hospital medical outpatient clinic. Looking at women with an inconspicuous finding, the affirmation increases with the receipt of the negative test result and continues at a high level at the follow-up time point three months after the calculated date of birth. In conflicting ethical situations, basic human rights and values are questioned, which is why authors’ study has asked participants to comment on how they experienced their decision and their attitudes to crucial aspects such as the acquisition of human dignity, the status of the embryo, and up until what time in pregnancy they think termination should be allowed.