Professor Eva Pajkrt:

I have the figures but there is a problem with our database. It is a national screening programme and I am sorry about it but it is still not working properly, so we do not have all the outcomes. As I said before, the uptake of prenatal screening in the Netherlands has been approximately 35%. That is for screening in the first trimester for foetal trisomies. We have done a study and, if the Senator wants, I can send him the paper, by Bakker et al., which I was involved in. We asked women their reasons. One reason was that many women in the Netherlands felt that Down's syndrome was not something we should screen for. I think that reflects our way of counselling women and giving them their own choice. Our health care is based on patient autonomy and what women want. We do not force anything on them. If a foetus is diagnosed with Down's syndrome, generally among women who want screening, the termination rate would be approximately 90%.