The acceptability of prenatal diagnosis in Japan.

Prenatal diagnosis has been performed more frequently in Japan recently, but is still less popular than in the United States or Europe. Legal arrangements, insufficient economic support, and insufficient medical information provided to future parents may explain this difference. The acceptability of prenatal diagnosis, based on the concept of the cost of side effects and elective abortion, was found to be similar when examined through decision analysis and direct survey. Amniocentesis was considered useful for more than half of couples in Japan when the incidence of chromosomal abnormality is more than 0.5% and proper information about the decision to undergo this examination is provided to the pregnant woman and her family.