ABSTRACT
The provision of screening in general, including antenatal and neonatal screening, needs to be co-ordinated within a responsible public health screening service so that all screening programmes are well chosen, effectively implemented and continually researched. This is the greatest challenge in antenatal and neonatal screening. This chapter discusses what one is concerned with screening of the population to identify conditions in which more benefit than harm will result from early identification. This is perhaps particularly relevant in the antenatal period, which for the majority of pregnant women is a happy and productive period that we should not seek to medicalise. The two main sources of official advice on antenatal screening in the UK are the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the UK National Screening Committee and its Antenatal Screening Subgroup. The primary objective of antenatal screening for Down's syndrome condition is to allow parents the choice of whether to continue with an affected pregnancy or have it terminated.
