Genetic counselling clinics

Abstract

The medical profession has slowly, over decades, come to recognize the necessity to make available informed genetic counselling. Strong demands are now coming from another source, from the general public. These demands, from the potential consumer, have been stimulated by education mainly through the mass media. There is a fast-growing awareness that levels of risk can be given for a number of deleterious conditions, and that some of these conditions can be detected before birth. In the United Kingdom the facilities for expert genetic counselling fall far short of the demand. It is to be hoped that this will be rectified by the inclusion of medical genetics as an integral part of undergraduate and postgraduate medical training, and by the extensive development of genetic counselling clinics in conjunction with the laboratory back-up services that can be provided by hospitals and universities. Up to now, genetic counselling services in this country have been developed mainly through the efforts of individuals with a special interest in medical genetics. Consequently, these services have grown up in a regrettably haphazard way, and do not give adequate national coverage. Many are threatened by extinction when their present incumbents retire or move away, through lack of successors sufficiently interested or equipped to take their place. This problem will be discussed in the light of experience of the organization of genetic counselling in other countries. Before this, however, it will be helpful to consider some general principles.