Testing Could Spot Disorders in Fetuses

A team of researchers revealed that testing for 3,500 genetic disorders an unborn child could carry can be discovered by taking a blood sample of a woman 18 weeks pregnant and a swab of saliva from the father. Currently, such genetic testing practiced is for Down Syndrome. The practice, which the University of Washington researchers believe will become widely available, could be fodder for abortion foes as some mothers could opt to abort a child that is found to have a disorder. Yet through the research, the unborn child’s genetic code is read by free-floating DNA that makes its way into its mother’s bloodstream, which—paired with a sample of the father’s saliva—can spot which spontaneous genetic mutations had developed.