How Much Do You Want to Know about Your Baby?
Within days of an infant being born, a few drops of blood are taken from the baby’s heel and tested for signs of more than two dozen different conditions, including congenital hypothyroidism and sickle-cell diseases. In many places, babies also are given tests to identify the likelihood of hearing or vision disorders. Some states have expanded their checks, including testing for amino-acid and metabolism disorders. Many of the new conditions being looked at have no definitive treatment or it isn’t clear whether immediate intervention is necessary. That can present an emotional dilemma for parents who may want to know if anything is wrong with their baby but in many cases have no therapy to pursue.
Entire WSJ article worth reading.
Our first duty is to do no harm, unfortunately we now get answers to questions we never wanted to ask. Screening should only be done for indentifiable, treatable problems where treatment will prevent further problems. PKU, Hypothroidism, and perhaps adrenal problems. The rest are questionable at best.
I’m not sure how much I want to know. Good question, though.
It is the age-old question: how much do we want to know about our futures?
I probably want to know a lot less than there is to know.
It is against the law to use such information for deciding whether to accept or reject a person for insurance. But, if the parents have this information they can use to obtain insurance at rates below expected cost. This could potentially create an adverse selection problem.