At first glance, the prospect of achieving a definite prenatal diagnosis with no obvious procedure related risks is compelling. Implementation of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis will save the lives of healthy fetuses that would have been lost as a rare “side effect” of established invasive procedures like amniocentesis. But, as Wright and Chitty are well aware, a closer look shows that this technique may have “side effects” of a different kind, most importantly problems with autonomy.

From an ethical point of view, the main justification for prenatal diagnosis is to support the reproductive autonomy of the pregnant woman or couple, because the typical goal of …