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A prenatal DNA screening test may soon be available for mothers. An unborn child’s mother will carry the blood of the child she is carrying in her blood stream. This means that genetic health testing can be carried out before the child is born by testing a sample of the mother’s blood.

Prenatal testing for illnesses should not be confused with prenatal testing for paternity. Of course, the two are very distinct and are used for entirely different reasons. The process to sample the DNA is however the same for both: amniocentesis. Amniocentesis involves entering the womb through the abdomen in order to extract samples. Another medical procedure that can be used is chorionic villus sampling- in this case, the surgeon enters the womb through the vagina. Both these DNA sampling procedures require the person to be under anesthetic. Prenatal screening is done to find chromosomal abnormalities and genetic diseases in a child in its early stages of development. A Hong Kong study has found a rich vein within the mother’s body that contains considerable quantities of fetal DNA; dying fetal cells or cells from the placenta invariably end up in the mother’s blood.

What has hindered advancement in the research of genetic testing for predisposition to hereditary illnesses is the difficulty in distinguishing the mother’s and the baby’s blood. Chemical pathologist Y. M. Dennis Lo from the Chinese University in Hong Kong, has succeeded in sequencing the DNA and get millions of replicas of the DNA necessary for testing.

 Problems encountered with Prenatal DNA testing fro Predisposition

First and foremost is the cost of the fetal DNA test, it is far too expensive to be made available to clinics. However, undoubtedly, the cost of the test will decreases in the coming years. The interpretation of results is also very complex requiring interpretation by an expert within the field. The research is still a very important step in a necessary direction. In future, it will be possible to have the entire baby DNA genome mapped. Expecting parents will be able to know which illnesses the child is carrying cystic including cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs disease.

Prenatal DNA screening as it stands is a real a break through; further research will bring about great changes to the life of the unborn child and the mother.

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