GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: New Down’s Syndrome test could save money, says RCOG

sábado, 24 de septiembre de 2016

New Down’s Syndrome test could save money, says RCOG

New Down’s Syndrome test could save money, say British obstetricians

by Xavier Symons | 24 Sep 2016 |

A new prenatal test could reduce the expense of caring for those with Down’s Syndrome, says the UK Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).

In a recent submission to the National Screening Committee, the RCOG said that a “rigorous economic analysis” is needed to evaluate the benefits of rolling out Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT).

If the decision has been made primarily on cost grounds, then a more rigorous economic analysis has to be made that includes the lifetime costs of caring for children and adults with Down’s syndrome (bearing in mind that cfDNA testing as a primary screen test will identify approximately 289 more babies with trisomies). Such an economic analysis may (or may not) suggest that cfDNA testing for all is cost-effective.

The RCOG submission was part of an NSC review into the impact of introducing NIPT.

Disability advocates have condemned RCOG’s suggestion, saying that it “puts a price on the life” of individuals with Down’s Syndrome.

‘It is utterly shocking that in this day and age someone can put a cost value on someone’s life just because they have a disability,” Dr. Elizabeth Corcoran of the Down’s Syndrome Research Foundation told The Daily Mail. “It is worse still that this comes from a respected Royal College that is a professional beacon for doctors.”

- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/new-downs-syndrome-test-could-save-money-says-rcog/12017#sthash.8OU7SGJV.dpuf

One of the recurring themes thrown up by assisted reproduction is the importance of genetic ties. Are we determined by our origins, or can we forge our own identity? Does it matter whether our nearest and dearest are our kith and kin or whether they are just the people we hang around with?

By chance I just stumbled across the astonishing story of a Hungarian politician whose life was transformed when he discovered his true genetic identity.

By the time Csanad Szegedi was 24, he was vice-president of Jobbik, a far-right, nationalist and virulently anti-Semitic party. He was elected to the European Parliament as a Jobbik MEP in 2009 and wrote a book, I Believe in Hungary’s Resurrection.

Then he learned his family’s deepest secret: he was a Jew. His grandfather and grandmother were actually Auschwitz survivors.

Szegedi’s life fell apart. He was forced to resign from Jobbik.

Suddenly he did a complete about-face. Under the tuition of a Lubavitch rabbi from New York who was living in Budapest he became an Orthodox, observant Jew; he had himself circumcised, adopted the name Dovid and burned a thousand copies of his book. Now he ismigrating to Israel with his wife and two children. He is interesting in joining the Knesset.

Szegedi is obviously a complex, intense man. He could even be a charlatan. But his astonishing journey does suggest that there is something to the idea that our personal identity is incomplete if it lacks the genetic heritage.