Chromosome examination of newborn children: purpose and ethical aspects.

The purpose of making chromosome investigations of newborn children as well as ethical problems in such studies and in follow-up studies of children with chromosome abnormalities is discussed, and a survey of 6 chromosome studies from a total of 47 145 newborn children is presented. It is stressed that more chromosome studies of newborn children are needed for several reasons, but one of the main reasons is to study the development of children with different chromosome abnormalities, especially those with sex-chromosome abnormalities and compare them with controls.