Abstract
The role of genetic counselors in prenatal paternity testing has not been widely studied in the genetic counseling literature. In South Australia, the genetic counselors of the State’s public sector clinical genetics service are the primary contact point for women seeking information and testing, also coordinating the testing process. This has provided the opportunity to review all prenatal paternity testing performed in the State over a 13 year period and to consider the role played by the genetic counselor. We explored the reasons why women requested prenatal paternity testing and whether the genetic counselor was an appropriate health professional to facilitate this testing for women. The study had two parts, an audit of the clinical genetics files of 160 women who requested prenatal paternity testing between March 2001 and March 2014, and qualitative interviews of genetic counselors, clinical geneticists, obstetricians and social workers with involvement in this area. The audit determined that in 69.9 % of cases the long-term partner was the father of the pregnancy, for 23.7 % the short-term or other partner was the father and for 6.4 % the paternity results were not known by the genetic counselor. For 45.5 % of women whose long-term partner was excluded as the father, the women chose to have a termination of pregnancy. The results of the qualitative interviews yielded five major themes: accessibility of testing, role of the genetic counselor, social and relationship issues, decision making in pregnancy and emotional issues. We conclude that the genetic counselor is an appropriate health professional to facilitate prenatal paternity testing. Genetic counselors did not view their role as significantly different from a request for prenatal testing for another indication.
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Human Genetics Society of Australasia
Australasian Society of Genetic Counsellors
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
National Society of Genetic Counselors
American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Association of Genetic Nurses and Counsellors
European Society of Human Genetics
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K. Riley, H. Salvemini, E. Haan, L. Fitzgerald, K. Stallard, S. Borrie, E. Pontikinas and A. Baxendale declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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was obtained by the Women’s and Children’s Health Network Human Research Ethics Committee: HREC/13/WCHN/20.
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.
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Informed consent was obtained from all interview participants included in the study.
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Riley, K.E., Salvemini, H., Haan, E. et al. Is there a Role for Genetic Counselors in Prenatal Paternity Testing? – an Assessment Based on Audit of 13 years of Clinical Experience in South Australia. J Genet Counsel 26, 159–172 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-016-9994-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-016-9994-1