Informed consent to non-invasive prenatal testing: findings from a qualitative study in Lebanon and in Quebec Hazar Haidar is an assistant professor at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, Vardit Ravitsky is professor of the bioethics programmes, department of social and preventive medicine, school of public health, Université de Montréal, and senior lecturer on global health and social medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and Dr Anne-Marie Laberge is a doctor and researcher at the department of paediatrics, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, Montréal. Appeared in BioNews 1096 Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) was first introduced in 2011, when breakthroughs in sequencing technology allowed the analysis of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal blood to detect genetic abnormalities in the fetus, such as trisomy 21 (Down's syndrome), with greater accuracy than previous screening tests. It therefore reduces the need for invasive diagnostic tests such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling.