ABSTRACT
New reproductive technologies1 provide women and couples2 with more options during pregnancy than their parents could have imagined. These choices can provide more assurance of the birth of a healthy infant but entail psychological hazards that arise from the fact that use of these technologies involves considerable uncertainty. Although technological intervention may increase the chances of a favorable outcome, their effectiveness is not assured and adverse outcomes can occur. Decisions regarding whether or not to undergo a given procedure are likely to involve uncertainty, and potential conflicts of values and risks. Relatively little attention has been paid to the psychological issues associated with the new technologies, including how decisions to use them (or not) are made and how their application impacts psychological functioning and distress.
