Who’s the daddy?

It had to come to a chemist near you: a DNA testing kit so you can tell who your real dad is. Boots (UK) is selling the AssureDNA kit for 30 pounds, which doesn’t sound like much. But once you’ve collected cells from the inside of the cheek, you pay 130 pounds for results in five days (or 329 pounds for a 24 hour result). So much for the financial cost.

Then there’s the social cost. Many families are blissfully unaware of who really belongs to whom and it doesn’t really matter. Innocence is bliss. It’s estimated that the national rate of 4% infidelity is likely to mask some marked variations, especially in “deprived” areas where it can be 30%. But you might also argue that children have a right to know who their parents are, whatever the circumstances – blood is thicker than water.

Those organisations concerned with ethics or religious beliefs will struggle with the possible social implications of a paternity testing kit. Its use could unleash a great deal of bitterness and disappointment, and unnecessarily poison a growing relationship between a father and son. So like any other invasive medical technique, it will have consequences. It’s rather like pregnant women who choose to find out the sex of their child. But my guess is it could be a lot more disturbing that knowing “it’s a girl”.

Ref: Sunday Telegraph (UK), 6 February 2011, The perils of the 30 pound paternity test. Laura Donnelly. www.telegraph.co.uk
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