Читать книгу What Doctors Don’t Tell You - Lynne McTaggart, Lynne McTaggart - Страница 30

Most of the rest of the new prenatal tests are designed to detect Down’s syndrome, and new ones are devised as fast as some of the older ones seem to get discredited – this despite the fact that none of these screening tests seems to be making much difference. Despite 30,000 amniocenteses and 3,000 chorionic villus tests performed each year in the UK, less than 20 per cent of Down’s syndrome babies are detected. This may have something to do with the fact that 70 per cent are born to younger mothers who don’t have the tests – a fact that tends to pour cold water on the idea that Down’s syndrome is solely a result of the ‘tired eggs’ of relatively elderly mothers.

In fact, despite medicine’s attempts to protect mothers from having Down’s babies, the incidence of the condition is going up. This could either be because the tests – usually amniocentesis or alpha-fetoprotein – are not detecting the condition, or because parents are choosing not to abort the babies diagnosed as suffering from the condition.

The most substantial risks you face of deformed or retarded children may result from the diagnostic tests themselves.