ABSTRACT
Since 1978 the organization of prenatal testing in Denmark has been structured around an age limit, offering pregnant women of 35 years of age or above invasive tests such as CVS or amniocentesis. In this regime, age – as associated with high risk – served as the main predictive selection criteria on the basis of which women were offered prenatal testing. In 2004, The Danish Board of Health decided that the organization of prenatal testing should be changed, and instead be organized on the basis of informed choice. Following this principle, the Board suggested that a first trimester risk assessment consisting of a blood test, the so-called double test and an ultrasound scan, the so-called nuchal translucency scan, should be offered to all pregnant women – regardless of age – on the basis of ‘objective information’ (Danish Board of Health 2004a). This, the Board suggested, would allow women and their partners to decide for themselves whether or not they want to undergo the risk assessment and, on the basis of the provided risk knowledge, whether they want to undergo an invasive diagnostic test.
