Stel preconceptionele dragerschapsscreening niet uit

Couples who are both carriers of the same autosomal recessive disorder are usually unaware of this fact until a child is born with a serious disorder. Preconceptional carrier screening can make them aware of this risk before pregnancy, and thus allow for informed reproductive decision-making. The Health Council of the Netherlands advised the Dutch government that a programme for preconceptional consultation should be implemented, alongside a large pilot project for preconceptional screening for cystic fibrosis and the haemoglobinopathies, but neither of these has been implemented to date. Future parents now depend on local initiatives, as well as on commercial tests offered via the Internet that may not always pay adequate attention to screening criteria and facilities for counselling. The government should accept responsibility for making clinically beneficial screening methods available within the public healthcare sector.

Conflict of interest: professor M.C. Cornel is employed by the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which offers an online CF carrier test to couples (€150) in a non-commercial fashion. She was a member of the Health Council of the Netherlands’ Committee that wrote the report ‘Screening: between hope and hype’ in 2008. Dr W.J. Dondorp was Secretary of the Health Council of the Netherlands’ Committee that wrote the report ‘Screening: between hope and hype’ in 2008. They are involved in research on screening at the Centre for Society and Genomics, which is financed by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative. Financial support: none declared.