Who needs clinical genetic services?
- Families with a child who has unusual physical features, is unusually small or large, or has medical problems
thought to be inherited or congenital (present at birth).
- Families with one or more members who have a chromosomal disorder, genetic disorder, birth defects, or mental
retardation.
- Families with one or more members who have unexplained seizures, blindness, deafness, or learning
disabilities.
- Families in which there is a history of problem pregnancies (stillbirths, miscarriages, or difficulty in
conceiving).
- Families in which the prospective mother is 35 years of age or older.
- Families who are members of ethnic groups considered to be at increased risk for certain genetic disorders, such
as Mediterraneans, Asians and African Americans (hemoglobinopathies), Caucasians (cystic fibrosis), and those of
Eastern European Jewish descent (Tay-Sachs, cyctic fibrosis, and Canavan disease).
- Families in which the prospective mother and father are blood relatives, such as first cousins.
- Families in which a certain medical condition has occurred in several generations or in several children within
the same generation.
- Families in which the prospective mother has been exposed to x-rays, alcohol, drugs, or other environmental
hazards.
- Families in which there is a history of hereditary cancers.
