Recognition and attitudes for prenatal diagnosis investigated by questionnaire on 1,130 Japanese common people aged 20 years and over, including college students. Data on the degree of recognition on the word "prenatal diagnosis" and thier attitude for its ethical aspects were obtained from 596 subjects (52.7%). We examined differences in the recognition and attitude according to sex (male and female), age group (20s, 30s, 40s and over), marital status (married and single) and parentfood (parent and childless). The results are follows : (1) 60% or more of the subjects knew the word "prenatal diagnosis", but their knowledge was uncertain. (2) Accordig to univariate analyses female, older, married or parent subjects were more concerned about the prenatal diagnosis than the other categories. (3) Many of the women answered to deside by themselves whether or not they would take the prenatal diagnosis, but they whould consult someone else if their fetus should be diagnosed as abnomal. (4) Many of the men answered to support the decisions of their spouse on whether to take the prenatal diagnosis as well as on whether to deliver the baby if the result of the diagnosis was abnormal. (5) The young single women tended to have supportive attitude for the prenatal diagnosis although they knew little about its implications. (6) However, the more the subjects knew about the prenatal diagnosis, the more they had supportive attitude for it. (7) The information source from which the subjects obtained on the prenatal diagnosis was the mass media, such as the television and the newspaper. However, the young women in their twenties seldom obtained the information from the newspaper.
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