Due to a number of recent achievements, the field of prenatal medicine is now on the verge of a profound transformation into prenatal genomic medicine. This transformation is expected to not only substantially expand the spectrum of prenatal diagnostic and screening possibilities, but finally also to advance fetal care and the prenatal management of certain fetal diseases and malformations. It will come along with new and profound challenges for the normative framework and clinical care pathways in prenatal (and reproductive) medicine. To adequately address the potential ethically challenging aspects without discarding the obvious benefits, several agents are required to engage in different debates. The permissibility of the sequencing of the whole fetal exome or genome will have to be examined from a philosophical and legal point of view, in particular with regard to conflicts with potential rights of future children. A second requirement is a societal debate on the question of priority setting and justice in relation to prenatal genomic testing. Third, a professional-ethical debate and positioning on the goal of prenatal genomic testing and a consequential re-structuring of clinical care pathways seems to be important. In all these efforts, it might be helpful to envisage the unborn rather not as a fetus, not as a separate moral subject and a second “patient”, but in its unique physical connection with the pregnant woman, and to accept the moral quandaries implicitly given in this situation.

由于最近取得的一些成就，产前医学领域现在正处于向产前基因组的深刻转变的边缘药物。预计这种转变不仅会大大扩展产前诊断和筛查的范围，而且最终也会促进胎儿护理以及某些胎儿疾病和畸形的产前管理。它将为产前（和生殖）医学的规范框架和临床护理途径带来新的和深刻的挑战。为了在不放弃明显好处的情况下充分解决潜在的道德挑战方面，需要几个代理人参与不同的辩论。整个胎儿外显子组或基因组测序的允许性必须从哲学和法律的角度进行审查，特别是在与未来儿童潜在权利的冲突方面。第二个要求是关于与产前基因组检测相关的优先级设置和正义问题的社会辩论。第三，关于产前基因组检测目标的职业道德辩论和定位以及随之而来的临床护理路径重组似乎很重要。在所有这些努力中，将未出生的人设想为胎儿，而不是单独的道德主体和第二个“病人”，而是设想其与孕妇的独特身体联系，并含蓄地接受道德困境，这可能会有所帮助在这种情况下给出。