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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think all babies should be DNA tested at birth

314 replies

ohagape · 04/12/2015 10:25

After reading that awful thread in step parenting where the poor guy wasn't even his 'sons' father and handed loads of money over to the horrible sounding mother, I really think all babies should be DNA tested as soon as they are born with the potential father/s, whether from a good relationship or not.

It would save a lot of heartbreak and wasted time and money. It can easily be told by blood types. My whole life my mum told me I had a different blood type. Then when I found out at my booking bloods and told her she got really confused about my dad's blood type. I really thought my dad wasn't my dad so he went and did a DNA test to reassure me. AIBU to think this should be a routine thing at all births and father's name shouldn't be on the birth certificate until it's done?

OP posts:
Gwenhwyfar · 04/12/2015 21:33

"I read somewhere that about 20% of babies were estimated to have an incorrect father listed in their birth certificate (which seems really high).

I always wonder how people come up with these figures.

How the hell would you know?"

There was a famous study (I think in a village in Yorkshire) that claimed 10%. This was later argued to be only true for that village, and the general number much lower.

Gwenhwyfar · 04/12/2015 21:37

"the entire french medical system were horrified/perplexed that I wasn't issued a card with my blood type on it as a child."

I was issued with one here in Wales when I first gave blood. They don't do it any more though.
The thing is, I was told that if you needed blood, they wouldn't accept those cards and would test your blood type anyway.

kessythirteen · 04/12/2015 21:44

People likely know the rough % of children whose father on the BC isn't the bio father by taking into account results from tests for genetic conditions.

When a kid has an inherited recessive disorder and only 1 parent is the carrier, you know the father isn't the father. It's a huge ethical problem in genetic testing actually. Tell or not tell, and then what?

When a recessive disorder has an unusual inheritance pattern, non-paternity is one of the most common 'causes'.

HotterWok · 04/12/2015 21:53

Dratsea: that's interesting, it's amazing how it still provokes strong feelings when it accounts for 20% of the jokes on Mock the Week

OneMoreCasualty · 04/12/2015 21:57

Lweji, that'd be just a regular database eg

Name: Bob Tosser;
% maintenance payments missed: 75%;
recommended action: impound Audi

FannyTheChampionOfTheWorld · 04/12/2015 22:40

None of the points anyone has mentioned are more relevant than even just a few children potentially being saved some heartache in years to come. Jeremy Kyle may even have to retire.

Nope. Keeping my own, my DHs and my children's DNA private and with no worry of it being retained on some database is infinitely more important than other people's children being potentially subjected to heartache. Even if we were to accept the proposition that this would save heartache, which I don't. Actually, if you wanted to do that you'd get rid of DNA testing altogether, but 'preventing heartache' isn't my priority anyway. Hence I feel DNA testing should continue to be available for those who want it even if it did turn out that on the whole, people were happier without knowing.

And why do you keep discussing what should happen if there were a cost free option? There isn't. Those of you who support this should really be thinking about what you'd cut in order to pay for it. We're not commenting from some parallel universe where genetic testing labs are free and analysts donate their time out of the kindness of their hearts.

Lweji · 04/12/2015 22:49

The NHS are reluctant to spend millions to save a few lives with, say, breast scans before 50.
You're very deluded if you think they (and the public, really) would be happy to spend those millions (they don't have) on saving a few children some potential future heartache.

LaLaLaaaa · 05/12/2015 03:16

YABU
Most of us don't live in the world of Jeremy Kyle,

Plus I can't even be arsed to shag my dh, let alone another guy. My DS is definitely his.

MinesAPintOfTea · 05/12/2015 04:18

How often do false negatives happen? One in a thousand would mean that for every ten lies about paternity (assuming the claimed father isn't aware for the majority) one family is destroyed due to a dodgy test.

sykadelic · 05/12/2015 05:39

YANBU. It would solve a lot of problems if a DNA test was done as a standard. It doesn't mean you can't then choose to raise that child as your own if it turns out it's not yours.

It means BOTH parents know for sure the child is theirs (or not theirs, whatever the case my be) and also for the children to know who their real parent/s are.

Remove the taboo and more guys I'm sure would be happy with that. In fact a 21 y/o cousin is going through this right now. His pregnant girlfriend is batshit crazy (as in a felon) and there's a LOT of talk of the kid not being his but he's too scared of looking like a dick by asking for a DNA test. Luckily, where I live it's required before entering into a visitation/parenting plan so it'll be done anyway.

Lweji · 05/12/2015 07:29

Would people who want standard obligatory tests be prepared to start paying for maternity services in the NHS? Longer waiting periods? More expensive prescriptions? Because someone would be paying for those millions of tests.

Not to mention the invasion of privacy and presumed innocent.
Would you also be happy with obligatory id cards?

sashh · 05/12/2015 07:30

It can easily be told by blood types.

No it can't.

And what about children born from IVF where donor sperm /eggs are used? Fairly pointless testing.

What does it cost? About £200? Great use of money that is.

SoupDragon · 05/12/2015 07:34

It would solve a lot of problems if a DNA test was done as a standard

Who is going to pay for it?

No one who thinks this is a good idea seems willing to explain how it is going to be funded. tHeNHs doe not have spare money hanging around for thousands and thousands of unnecessary tests.

DinosaursRoar · 05/12/2015 07:35

The people saying "if it was cost free" still aren't addressing why it would be in the governments best interests to do this, because as far as I can see, a man in a committed relationship raising a child as his own is better for society than one finding out the child he thought was his isn't and the state having to step in to fund the child.

There's an assumption here it would save more heartache later on if a man found out before he's bonded with a child that it's not his, but that assumes the majority of the small number of men unknowingly raising someone else's child will find out. Most will never know and so this would create heartache and family breakup.

OneMoreCasualty · 05/12/2015 09:28

Well quite, Dinosaurs.

Essentially, this helps men who want the knowledge, are afraid of the repercussions of asking their wives if they've been unfaithful and so would like to pass that responsibility off onto the state. Safe in the knowledge that the state will never ask any such question of them...

Lweji · 05/12/2015 09:57

But such men can still do a paternity test with their own dna and their children's. They never have to tell the mothers. They do have to pay, though.
And if I was a man having a child from a one night stand or a casual relationship I'd want to test too.

FannyTheChampionOfTheWorld · 05/12/2015 10:18

It's not going to be 'done as standard' though sykadelic because even if for some reason the NHS decided to offer it free to everyone, quite clearly lots of parents don't want to provide samples of either their own or their child's DNA to some outside body, for no benefit to them. It won't be normalised for this reason. I mean, there are a few people here couching this in terms of father's rights. But my DH doesn't actually want to provide samples of his DNA when he doesn't have to, to tell him something he knows already. Nor would he be prepared to consent to our children's being checked either, for no benefit to them. Some people have more concerns about privacy than others, and lots of them are male.

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:22

No, not read the whole thread, but here are a few issues I haven't spotted anyone raising.

First and foremost

A DNA test can confirm with almost certainty who a father IS

but can never say with total certainty who the father ISNT

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:23

thats the main issue really

A lot of father's would be told that the paternity test was negative, but actually they are the father, but it can't be shown.

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:24

Then there is all the other issues that would be thrown up.

If your child has a genetic disease that will definitely kill them before 50, do you want to know?

Do you want them to know?

if not, who will be holding that information?

And what security will there be on it?

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:26

and the whole can of worms about race and culture, that the american native debate has fallen in to.

"No, you are not a native American, cos your DNA falls 3% short of the bar"

again, who holds that information, and who has access to it???

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:28

and the information that would come to light about the health and origins of previous generations.

and the information that would come to light about family, cousins, etc. For example, when one man had a DNA test done, it came to light that a relative, now dead had been present in a room when a murder was comitted.

Lweji · 05/12/2015 10:30

A DNA test can confirm with almost certainty who a father IS
but can never say with total certainty who the father ISNT

Sorry, but that's the exact opposite.
If none of the markers from the father is present in the child, then it's not his.
But if all markers are present, it's likely that it's his, but there is a tiny chance it was a coincidence.

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:31

There is so much information that can be revealedthrough a DNA test, and this will only increase massively as time goes on.

Who is going to give permission for this information to be taken, the baby cannot give consent. You have to think about where the information will be stored, and how it will be safeguarded.

What happens if the ministry of defence starts wanting to identify the highest or lowest IQs in a certain generation......... the scope for social engineering is limitless.

what information might banks/ mortgage companies etc start insisting on, or courts, or prisons, schools, or even fiances!!!!

sharoncarol43 · 05/12/2015 10:32

Never mind the cost! Which would be astronomical! and the benefits would be about zero, and the legal position extremely dodgy