Letters.

Patients Deserve CF Screening

Katie Richardson's view on preconceptional and prenatal care and counseling is obviously heartfelt, but offensive to me as a physician ("Pro & Con: Should preconceptional and prenatal cystic fibrosis carrier screening be a routine part of obstetrical care?" June 1, 2002, p. 5).

It's apparent that Ms. Richardson has no idea what we do or how we counsel. Regardless of whether they ultimately take the test, my patients appreciate being informed and being given a choice--a point Ms. Richardson implicitly concedes by acknowledging that she offered her husband such an option. Choice is the point of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists/American College of Medical Genetics recommendation, nothing more.

My personal experience has made me very sensitive to the subject. My sister-in-law went through agony with a newborn with failure to thrive for the first weeks after birth. The child eventually tested positive for CE. As a result, my niece's "healthy" 3-year-old brother was tested and found to be positive too. The parents were forced to educate themselves about the disorder, initiate complex therapies for two small children, and deal with the emotional fallout of the diagnosis. Had they been tested prenatally, they could have hit the ground running when their children were born.

Ms. Richardson contends that physicians offer prenatal diagnosis as a means to advise abortion if ...