ABSTRACT
Background: Prenatal screening offers crucial information about the pregnancy, although sometimes brings forth ethical issues and potentially difficult decisions for pregnant women. Ultrasound screening during pregnancy is both of particular importance and a great challenge. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess women's knowledge and expectations regarding prenatal ultrasound screening in Greece. Methods: The study was conducted between May 2019 and January 2020. Three hundred pregnant women >18 years of age with complete antenatal routine screening, were invited to participate. The questionnaire contained sociodemographic and obstetric history information and highlighted the background knowledge of pregnant women in prenatal screening. Results: In this study, women with university or technological education mentioned in a greater proportion the importance of prenatal screening regarding prevention and treatment of intrauterine diseases. The belief that the pain or sorrow to give birth to a disabled child or one with a genetic disorder might lead parents to the decision to terminate the pregnancy, was supported more by women with a higher educational level. Conclusion: Pregnant women place a great deal of trust in their physician, as a source of information for the fetal well-being. The majority consider prenatal testing mandatory for that matter. Finally, an association between women who abide with prenatal screening and their educational level was noted. Thus, it's more common women who have a higher educational level to seek prenatal screening, than those with lower education level.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Current practice in prenatal diagnosis becomes challenging with new bioethics issues emerging constantly during daily clinical routine. Although fetal interventions are driven by a motivation to improve the health of the fetus, progress in fetal therapies raises issues of maternal autonomy. The objective of this article is to assess bioethics in prenatal diagnosis in Greece as well as bioethics education. METHODS: The study was conducted between October 2018 and December 2019. Two hundred and twenty eligible responders were involved in fetal and perinatal medicine in Greece. The questionnaire was developed as a Likert scale. Part 1 covered the participants' general opinion about bioethics. Part 2 covered ethical dilemmas likely to arise when routine screening presents a complicated result. RESULTS: In the study, 92.3% of the participants considered that the branch of bioethics is necessary in medical practice. Regarding challenging bioethics issues, only 86% of the participants consider that the miscarriage risk should be discussed after an invasive procedure. Furthermore, it is not clear for responders whether informed consent is a medical or legal obligation (43% vs 33%) and whether information should be provided orally or written (49% vs 46%). Finally, 32% of healthcare practitioners declare that they are not fully aware of the law concerning the rights of the fetus. CONCLUSIONS: Although healthcare professionals acknowledge the distinct role of bioethics, mismanagement of ethical dilemmas reveals that under-graduate teaching of this discipline is not addressed effectively. Identifying the parameters that would improve the learning process would make a significant contribution in the routine clinical practice.
