Clik here to view.
Tests will allow couples or individuals to assess their own risk of carrying genetic conditions such as cystic fibrosis
Government advisers have endorsed the idea of a national pre-pregnancy screening programme for couples who want to know whether they have genetic conditions they could pass on to their children.
There are no specific ethical, legal or social principles that would make such a possibility unacceptable, said a report from the Human Genetics Commission.
It said testing should be available to all those who might benefit, but individuals or couples should never be made "to feel obliged, expected or forced" to undergo such tests before conception and should receive "non-directive" counselling on the issue.
But some critics have warned that the report could pave the way for eugenics.
The UK national screening committee which advises on whether the NHS should offer tests for a number of conditions – including during pregnancy – had sought the commission's view before considering whether preconception tests should be added to the list.
Conditions such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease can develop in young people if both parents are carriers of the genetic disease. Currently only people with a known risk of inherited disease can get the tests.
Frances Flinter, chair of the working group which developed the report, said: "At the moment, preconception genetic testing only occurs if an individual knows they are at risk of carrying a genetic condition or they belong to a community which has set up a local screening programme.
"This means many individuals or couples do not discover that they carry a genetic condition until they are pregnant. A preconception test rather than a test during pregnancy will ensure greater patient choice and access to information that will help support people who are planning to have children."
The Department of Health said: "Genetic screening can be a powerful diagnostic tool in assessing an individual's risk of conditions such as cystic fibrosis. But there are a number of considerations that are broader than the remit of this report which influence whether specific screening programmes should be established."
The commission report recommends that if antenatal carrier screening is offered for a genetic condition, then, where technically feasible, preconception tests should be offered, too.
The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, a national charity, said: "The choice should be available to people who want to have it."
However, David King, director of the watchdog group Human Genetics Alert, said: "This immensely dangerous report advocates the quickest route to a eugenics which has little difference from that seen in the early 20th century: a general trawl through the whole population to weed out all 'bad genes'.
"It will inevitably lead to young people being stigmatised and becoming less favourable for marriage, and disabled people feeling more threatened."
