Adoption News

Genetic Testing in Adoption

Reports from geneticists have stated that prospective adoptive parents and adoption agencies are requesting a wider range of genetic tests before, during, or immediately after the adoption process. It is possible that certain children who are determined to have various harmful or undesirable genetic predispositions or characteristics will have a difficult time being adopted or, if adopted, will be treated differently by adoptive parents. Although these reports must be considered anecdotal or preliminary at the present time, it is clear that the pressure for genetic testing in adoption will increase as the range of available genetic tests increases.

The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) and the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) recommend the following:

All genetic testing of newborns and children in the adoption process should be consistent with the tests performed on all children of a similar age for the purposes of diagnosis or of identifying appropriate prevention strategies. Because the primary justification for genetic testing of any child is a timely medical benefit to the child, genetic testing of newborns and children in the adoption process should be limited to testing for conditions that manifest themselves during childhood or for which preventive measures or therapies may be undertaken during childhood. In the adoption process, newborns and children should not be tested for the purpose of detecting genetic variations of or predispositions to physical, mental, or behavioral traits within the normal range.

These recommendations are designed primarily as an educational resource for medical geneticists and other health care providers, to help them provide quality medical genetic services. Adherence to these recommendations does not necessarily assure a successful medical outcome. These recommendations should not be considered inclusive of all proper procedures and tests or exclusive of other procedures and tests that are reasonably directed to obtaining the same results. In determining the propriety of any specific procedure or test, the geneticist should apply his or her own professional judgment to the specific clinical circumstances presented by the individual patient or specimen. It may be prudent, however, to document in the patient’s record the rationale for any significant deviation from these recommendations. (This statement does not address the issue of the use of genetic information about the adoptive parents to determine their suitability for adoption.)

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	Did You Know?
	Children can be adopted from other countries Adopting children from all over the world has become something U.S. residents and citizens have been doing more and more when starting or expanding their families. Over 20,000 inter-country adoptions are taking place per year in addition to the more than Most adoptive parents are two parent families Most adoptive parents are two parent families aged 31 to 40. A growing number of parents are aged 41 to 49. Most parents attended or completed college. Adoption assistance is available Monthly or one-time only subsidy payments to help adoptive parents raise children with special needs. These payments were initially made possible by the enactment of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272) which provided Federa