Views of Canadian healthcare professionals on the future uses of non-invasive prenatal testing: a mixed method study

Abstract

Non-invasive prenatal testing’s (NIPT) potential to screen for a wide range of conditions is receiving growing attention. This study explores Canadian healthcare professionals’ perceptions towards NIPT’s current and possible future uses, including paternity testing, sex determination, and fetal whole genome sequencing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten healthcare professionals, and another 184 participated in a survey. The triangulation of our findings shows that there is considerable agreement among healthcare professionals on expanding NIPT use for medical conditions including fetal aneuploidies and monogenic diseases, but not for non-medical conditions (sex determination for non-medical reasons and paternity testing), nor for risk predisposition information (late onset diseases and Fetal Whole Genome Sequencing). Healthcare professionals raise concerns related to eugenics, the future child’s privacy, and psychological and emotional burdens to prospective parents. Professional societies need to take these concerns into account when educating healthcare professionals on the uses of NIPT to ensure prospective parents’ reproductive decisions are optimal for them and their families.