The case against preadoption genetic testing

Abstract

Adoption professionals and prospective adoptive families have become increasingly interested in obtaining genetic information on children prior to adoption. Predictive genetic testing of apparently healthy children has been urged as a way of generating information about children's future health and assisting families in deciding whether to adopt. Such genetic testing of children, however, raises a host of ethical issues with important implications for adoption policy and practice. The medical and psychosocial benefits and risks of predictive testing provide the context for analyzing the ethics of such testing. Ethical considerations strongly counsel against predictive genetic testing solely for purposes of evaluating a child for adoption.