Ethical issues in perinatal genetics

Ethics is an essential dimension of perinatal genetics. This article introduces perinatologists to the ethical principles of beneficence and respect for autonomy and uses these ethical principles to articulate the ethical concept of the fetus as a patient. Together these constitute an ethical framework that we apply to risk assessment, in response to which women may be divided into four groups: prenatal genetic counseling, and the responsible management of pregnancies complicated by genetic anomalies of the fetus.