Level of support for the child

There are concerns that as prenatal diagnosis becomes more widespread, those who decide not to have testing when they are known to be at risk of a genetic disorder, or who decide to continue with an affected pregnancy, may come to be seen as irresponsible. Where the child will be severe ti disabled and require long term and expensive treatment it is possible that society will become increasingly unwilling to pay for the necessary care, seeing the parents as 'to blame' for the birth and therefore individually responsible for the cost of treatment. In the USA there have been reports of private insurance companies attempting, unsuccessfully, to withhold reimbursement for medical care of children whose disability was detected before birth." With the increasing use of private medical insurance in the UK it is possible that a similar path may be trodden in this country. Any such moves must be vigorously opposed. The availability of resources for the care and treatment of a disabled child must not be contingent on whether the parents knew of the disability before the child was born.