Awareness of Genetic Information in Males: Interviews of Men with Children Who Have Undergone Newborn Screening

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the awareness of genetic testing and information in males (fathers) whose children have undergone newborn screening, a genetic test. Newborn screening in Japan began in 1977, which now has become a test that almost all newborns take. Since 2014, a new testing method called Tandem Mass Spectrometry was introduced, increasing the number of diseases that can be detected. Now, we interviewed and analyzed males who had children born in 2014 or later. As a result, the subjects thought finding out their own genetic information was not a problem. However, having more children including the second child was considered to be “women’s choices,” whose reason was “because women are the ones to give birth.” The answers argue that although the issue of genetic information is equivalent, “child delivery” is claimed as an act only females can complete, therefore males themselves avoid making their own decisions.