"About 20 to 25% of perinatal deaths result from fetal anomalies. Techniques and practice of genetic counselling and prenatal diagnosis can obviously reduce this rate. Parents now expect accurate counselling after the birth of a severley malformed child, and this can only be provided when a precise diagnosis is known. The assessment of such material requires a combination of skills and knowledge spanning the fields of clinical genetics, embryology, pathology, teratology, obstetrics and paediatrics.