At-risk couple

a couple at risk to give birth to a child with a serious genetically transmitted disease

Description
Examples for at risk couples include, for example, couples of (a) heterozygotes for thalassemia or (b) couples with one person heterozygote for thalassemia and the other for sickle cell disease. The probability that the fetus will be affected by (a) homozygous thalassemia or by (b) a double-heterozygote state of anemia is 25% at each conception. Where the necessary infrastructure is in place, at-risk couples are offered genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis by default.