Screening for genetic disorders among Jews: How should the Tay-Sachs screening program be continued?

The screening program in Israel for Tay-Sachs disease has proven very succe ssful, giving Jewish couples a choice not to have affected children. The te chnology of carrier detection is now possible in several other severe genet ic diseases that are relatively frequent among Jews. Due to the current con fusion, a policy is needed to determine how :the TSD screening program shou ld be continued in the Israeli Jewish population. We propose that such a sc reening program-include only mutations agreed by consensus as causing a dis ease severe enough to warrant the possibility of therapeutic abortion. We a lso propose that general screening include only mutations that are relative ly frequent, taking into account the carrier frequencies in the Israeli Jew ish population.