Genetic diagnosis of intellectual disability and its ethical aspect

Parents of a child with an intellectual disability experience a whole range of difficult emotions. At the same time, they want to know the cause of their child’s disability and gain the most reliable knowledge on this topic. The term “intellectual disability” is used to refer to a lot of different types of disability, which may have different causes and degrees of severity. Intellectual disability is the most widespread and most commonly diagnosed disorder as indicated by numerous statistics1. How its occurrence rate is determined depends on the understanding of the term “intellectual disability”. In 1975 in the United States it was calculated that mental disability affects 3.6% of children of school age2. In the Netherlands, it was estimated that approximately 3% of children have some kind of intellectual disability, while in France and Japan – 4.5%3. Currently, the accepted rate for Europe ranges from 2.2% to 3.2%. Intellectual disability affects 60–70% of all disabled children. This article will discuss genetic diagnostic methods for an intellectual disability in children as well as their ethical aspect. First, it will be explained what diagnosis generally is.