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(THE CONVERSATION) Every parent-to-be wants a healthy baby. And, when offered an opportunity, most couples want to know which disease-causing genes, or risk factors, they carry and could unwittingly pass to their children.

I’m a clinical molecular geneticist and wanted to understand exactly how much do people want to know about their genetic baggage. To address this question, I and a team of clinical geneticists, genetic counselors, laboratory geneticists and researchers screened a...