{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]],"date-time":"2026-06-23T08:26:37Z","timestamp":1782203197929,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":15,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1768953600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Digit. Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Advances in artificial intelligence and multi-omic analysis are transforming fetal medicine from a diagnostic discipline into a predictive one. Yet the legal, deontological, and ethical frameworks that govern prenatal and fetal data have not evolved accordingly. Current regulations protect the mother as a patient but do not recognize the fetus\u2014or the future child\u2014as a legal data subject. As a result, information generated before birth remains confined within maternal medical records, creating uncertainty about who may later access or reuse it. This paper examines the emerging ethical and legal challenges of predictive fetal medicine, focusing on the transition from maternal consent to the child's future right to their own prenatal data. Through the lens of professional deontology and comparative law, we analyze the tensions between confidentiality, autonomy, and beneficence. We propose a framework of prenatal data stewardship, shifting from static notions of data ownership to shared responsibility across time. Establishing national or international repositories under transparent governance could enable ethical reuse of fetal data while safeguarding maternal privacy and ensuring future individuals' rights. Ultimately, aligning predictive fetal medicine with ethical and legal coherence requires collective action among clinicians, ethicists, jurists, policymakers, and industry. Only through such stewardship can information generated before birth become a trusted tool for care rather than control.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fdgth.2026.1758249","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T06:42:23Z","timestamp":1768977743000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Predictive fetal medicine and the ownership of prenatal data: legal, ethical, and professional challenges"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Yoann","family":"Marechal","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","volume-title":"Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing: Ethical Issues","author":"Montgomery","year":"2017"},{"key":"B2","first-page":"33","article-title":"Protecting the genetic data of unborn children: a critical analysis","volume":"4","author":"Pormeister","year":"2018","journal-title":"Eur Data Prot Law Rev"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"147","DOI":"10.1186\/s13098-025-01707-7","article-title":"DNA methylation patterns and predictive models for metabolic disease risk in offspring of gestational diabetes mellitus","volume":"17","author":"Wang","year":"2025","journal-title":"Diabetol Metab Syndr"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3585","DOI":"10.26355\/eurrev_202205_28854","article-title":"The role of fetal programming in human carcinogenesis: may the barker hypothesis explain interindividual variability in susceptibility to cancer insurgence and progression?","volume":"26","author":"Coghe","year":"2022","journal-title":"Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci"},{"key":"B5","first-page":"L119","volume-title":"Regulation (EU) 2016\/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation)","year":"2016"},{"key":"B6","volume-title":"Loi du 22 Ao\u00fbt 2002 Relative aux Droits du Patient","year":"2002"},{"key":"B7","volume-title":"Proposal for a Regulation on the European Health Data Space","year":"2022"},{"key":"B8","year":""},{"key":"B9","year":""},{"key":"B10","year":""},{"key":"B11","volume-title":"International Code of Medical Ethics","year":"2022"},{"key":"B12","volume-title":"Declaration of Geneva","year":"2017"},{"key":"B13","volume-title":"Declaration of Reykjavik on Ethical Considerations Regarding Health Databases and Biobanks","year":"2016"},{"key":"B14","volume-title":"Convention on the Rights of the Child","year":"1989"},{"key":"B15","volume-title":"Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence","year":"2021"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Digital Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fdgth.2026.1758249\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T06:42:25Z","timestamp":1768977745000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fdgth.2026.1758249\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]]},"references-count":15,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fdgth.2026.1758249"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fdgth.2026.1758249","relation":{},"ISSN":["2673-253X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2673-253X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]]},"article-number":"1758249"}}