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Informed Consent Should Be a Required Element for Newborn Screening, Even for Disorders with High Benefit-Risk Ratios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Norman Fost
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Abstract

Over-enthusiastic newborn screening has often caused substantial harm and has been imposed on the public without adequate information on benefits and risks and without parental consent. This problem will become worse when genomic screening is implemented. For the past 40 years, there has been broad agreement about the criteria for ethically responsible screening, but the criteria have been systematically ignored by policy makers and practitioners. Claims of high benefit and low risk are common, but they require precise definition and documentation, which has often not occurred, undermining claims that involuntary testing is justified. Even when the benefits and risks are well established, it does not automatically follow that involuntary testing is justified, a position supported by the widespread tolerance for parental refusal of immunizations and newborn screening.

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 44 , Issue 2: Ethical and Legal Issues in Pediatrics , Summer 2016 , pp. 241 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2016

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