You gotta love this country

[andrewducker]

Studies in Sweden on paternity show that 1-2% of children did not have the father they thought they did.

A similar study in Liverpool gave results of 30%.

On the one hand - MOAR RESEARCH NEEDED. On the other hand - LOL!

From this article, via bart_calendar

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Thus has it ever been - talk to ffutures of the days when school science techs were allowed to take blood samples so that pupils could learn their blood groups. He used to have to fib that the test was rather inaccurate, so as to explain away otherwise impossible blood groups in relation to siblings...

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Imagine if they'd studied Essex instead of Liverpool.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

As I frequently say when asked if I believe in monogamy... I'm sure it exists.

[andrewducker]

Well, it seems to exist in Finland. But maybe they're an exception.

[matgb]

Nah. So inbred that paternity tests prove nowt ;-)

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Maybe Swedish parents are better at explaining differences between biological and social fathers than their Liverpudlian counterparts?

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember that the impossibility factor in the U.S. is somewhere around 13%.

[beachpsalms.livejournal.com]

I think when Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto opened their genetic testing clinic, they eventually discovered that in about 1 in 10 families the presenting father wasn't the genetic father. And had to decide whether or not to disclose that to families who were already under stress because of medical issues. They developed ethical guidelines against disrupting the families by disclosing paternity; which worked until some of those families split up; and the same non-genetic dads showed back up at the clinic with a new family, sometimes thinking they are a carrier for something they aren't.

It's an medical ethics mess.

[andrewducker]

Eventually it'll be cheap enough that everyone will just have a copy of their DNA to play with at home, and the can of worms will well and truly hit the fan. And then everyone will just get over it. Well, maybe.