PRENATAL-DIAGNOSIS IN FRANCE

Prenatal diagnosis (PND) is very developed in France, especially in th e area of ultrasound (US) screening. The activity is regulated by law, and laboratories have to be authorised to perform any type of prenata l biological test if the purpose is to diagnose fetal defects. There a re 70 cytogenetics laboratories and 50 biochemistry laboratories perfo rming serum marker screening, about half of them being private. PND of chromosomal anomalies is offered to women over 37 years of age, to wo men who already had a child with a chromosomal anomaly, in case of abn ormal US findings, if one of the parents has a balanced chromosomal an omaly and if the risk of chromosomal anomaly is higher than 1:250 acco rding to the serum markers. Half of the trisomy 21 cases are now detec ted prenatally and pregnancies terminated. Fetal cell sampling is perf ormed by amniocentesis in 70% of cases, by chorionic villus sampling i n 7% of cases and by fetal blood sampling in 23% of cases. There are n o professional guidelines and no quality assessment networks for any o f the techniques in use. PND is regulated by two major laws: the Law o n Abortion (1975) and the Law on Bioethics (1994).