Researchers from Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands announced that they are only a few years away from offering a noninvasive blood test to detect Down syndrome in unborn babies.

Speaking at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology's annual conference in Rome, researcher Suzanna Frints said that within four years the kit could be used to quickly and cheaply determine if the baby carries the disorder, the Daily Mail reported. Other teams of researchers around the world are also developing similar tests, according to the newspaper.

However, babies who test positive for Down syndrome would almost certainly die in greater numbers if such a test were used by all pregnant women. Already, about 90% of unborn babies diagnosed with the syndrome are aborted, the New York Times reported.

Frints told the Daily Telegraph, "Although we need to test and refine this technique further our results so far are promising." She added, "When we succeed in developing the procedure for use in maternal blood we will be able to offer a safe, cheap, fast, reliable and accurate non-invasive test, which will be of immediate benefit to pregnant women, young and old, all over the world."

The new test would remove the real risk of miscarriage that is present in the current procedures to screen for Down syndrome. A blood test, which uses only a sample of the mother's blood, would not threaten the baby's life.
The blood test itself might not. But that does not take into account the impact on parents.

"The age is swiftly coming where not all possible technologic advances may bring welcomed change," wrote Dr. Brian Skotko of Children's Hospital Boston and the National Down Syndrome Society, according to FoxNews.com. "Parents who have children with Down syndrome have already found much richness in life with an extra chromosome. Now is the time for the rest of us to discuss the ethics of our genetic futures."

See "The Impact of a Less Invasive Test for Down Syndrome" at Today's News & Views.