Factors affecting couples' decision making about expanded prenatal cell-free DNA screening.

Purpose: To assess intended parents' preferences about expanded prenatal cell-free DNA screening.

Methods: A survey was administered to couples who were pregnant or trying to conceive. Partners within couples were independently asked about willingness to seek prenatal cell-free DNA screening for diseases and traits that varied by severity, treatability, age of onset, and reliability.

Modern Family: An Ethical Justification for System-Led Contact of Relatives Eligible for Cascade Screening in the United States.

Background: Though genomic science has rapidly advanced, efforts to demonstrate the population-level utility of genomics have been slow to follow. It has long been argued that the family is an important unit of significance in genomics, yet it has been challenging to address this in clinical care. This is apparent in how hospital administrators and clinicians in the United States typically approach cascade screening, the process of notifying and offering genetic testing to at-risk relatives of a patient with a hereditary condition.

Perspectives of researchers, science policy makers and research ethics committee members on the feedback of individual genetic research findings in African genomics research.

Background: Genetic research can yield information that is unrelated to the study's objectives but may be of clinical or personal interest to study participants. There is an emerging but controversial responsibility to return some genetic research results, however there is little evidence available about the views of genomic researchers and others on the African continent.

Methods: We conducted a continental survey to solicit perspectives of researchers, science policy makers and research ethics committee members on the feedback of individual genetic research findings in African genomics research.