Dr. Pangloss’s Clinic: Prenatal Whole Genome Sequencing and a Return to Reality

Published January 2017

Summary: This commentary, on a proposal for unrestricted noninvasive prenatal whole genome sequencing, offers a critique based on the proposal’s disconnect from the practice of genomic medicine and prenatal care, and on its lack of recognition of the many regulatory and logistical barriers. Fully informed decisions about prenatal whole genome sequencing, in the manner this proposal envisions, are impossible from scientific, clinical, sociological, and practical perspectives.