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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
ComposHatComesBack · 04/12/2015 12:26

I've never seen anyone back up the 20-25% claims with a credible source. It has been knocking around longer than there's been cheap and reliable DNA testing.

Even if a small scale study was produced, surely it would only be relevant to the time and the place it was conducted and isn't universally applicable.

almondpudding · 04/12/2015 12:26

What happens if a woman says a man is the father, and he refuses to take a DNA test? Is he arrested? Sent to prison? Physically forced to provide a sample by the state?

What happens if a woman says a man is the father and he isn't? Is she arrested?

StrawberryTeaLeaf · 04/12/2015 12:29

Well this is bonkers Smile

Freezingwinter · 04/12/2015 12:31

yabu. Completely.

PerspicaciaTick · 04/12/2015 12:34

I think that we should extend the role of the Bounty lady, so she comes round wielding DNA swabs and claiming you can't apply for Child Benefit unless you all agree to be tested. Hmm

squoosh · 04/12/2015 12:34

'Once DNA testing became cheap it became easy to test if the father on birth certificate was genetically the father. I think studies find that 25% of second children were not.'

It may be that 25% of DNA tests undertaken find the child has a different father to the one named on the birth cert. But presumably people only go for a DNA test if there's uncertainty so that's not overly surprising.

But if you're saying 25% of all second children born have a different father to the one stated on the birth cert well that's clearly absolute bull.

DrDreReturns · 04/12/2015 12:35

If a father doubts paternity, the can easily get the baby's DNA and his own and test it (NOT WITH BLOOD TYPES).

You need the mother's DNA as well!

DinoSnores · 04/12/2015 12:36

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

This is wrong but oft repeated around here! It is probably about 1-2%.

The Wikipedia page gives a nice summary of most of the (many) studies that have looked into this.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattributed_paternity

DrDreReturns · 04/12/2015 12:36

I find the figure of 25% very hard to believe. As squoosh says it must be the proportion of people going for tests, in which case there is already uncertainty.

Gileswithachainsaw · 04/12/2015 12:38

What would happen in the case of someone who's a in witness protection program?

SoupDragon · 04/12/2015 12:40

It would save a lot of heartbreak and wasted time and money. It can easily be told by blood types.

If someone wants a DNA test, they can pay for it themselves, not waste the NHS budget on thousands and thousands of unnecessary tests.

megatron14 · 04/12/2015 12:40

Massive YABU...

Enjolrass · 04/12/2015 12:40

If we were to DNA test all babies.

Should the women also do lie detectors. I mean your baby could be your partners, but you still could have been sleeping around. Just got lucky that it's the right father.

And if women are such lying twats maybe they should do lie detectors every month. You know just in case they are lying about something else

BarbarianMum · 04/12/2015 12:43

This entry from Wikipedia sums the situation up nicely:

helenahandbag · 04/12/2015 12:45

but not sure if you're advocating the OP's idea?

No, I'm not advocating the OP'd idea at all. My example was simply saying that it does matter if the wrong person is put on the birth certificate. He now has a relationship with a little girl who there is a 50% change is not his daughter, but he doesn't know that there was another man in the picture. I don't think it's harmless to have a man think he has a child.

BeyondThirty · 04/12/2015 12:45

Who gets written on there if the dad is a twin?

iWipemyass · 04/12/2015 12:47

I have a particular (negative) blood group. DH has the same, as does one of my children. However the other child has a completely different blood group.
Most definitely my dc though.

Like another poster, anti-d injections and the refusal of in pregnancy was a fun game though.

almondpudding · 04/12/2015 12:48

'I think that we should extend the role of the Bounty lady, so she comes round wielding DNA swabs and claiming you can't apply for Child Benefit unless you all agree to be tested. hmm'

I know you're joking, but how do people who support this think the state is going to force fathers to comply?

Do single mothers get their child benefit stopped if the father refuses a DNA test?

Lweji · 04/12/2015 12:51

You need the mother's DNA as well!
Not strictly.
You need the mother's to establish if two people are siblings for example. Not to determine if someone is the father or not.

giraffesCantDoThat · 04/12/2015 12:58

I just have my boyfriend handcuffed to me at all times. Then he knows I haven't cheated and if I fall pregnant then he will know it is his.

My idea costs the NHS less money than the DNA testing plan but does mean we both need an understanding employer.

DrDreReturns · 04/12/2015 12:59

Lweji sorry I stand corrected, it is more accurate with the mother's as well but in most cases not necessary.
They use a more accurate system now than when I was involved in it five years ago!

sazzer76 · 04/12/2015 13:05

I was emotionally bullied into a test by ex-partners vile mother. Everyone could see that DD was his child, he never doubted she was his child and I never gave him or anyone else reason to think that she wasnt but the woman just had to find a way to make a really traumatic break up even worse. It was humiliating and upsetting and I pity any woman backed into a corner like that so, yes- YABU.

Riffraff1 · 04/12/2015 13:16

Yabu. I was raped which is how my ds was conceived. My lovely dp (who knows all this) is his dad and has been there at the birth and for every day of his life. He's also on the birth certificate. Should ds have been tested at birth? Should I be forced to put the man who raped me on the bc? Is he more of a father than my dp?

ofallthenerve · 04/12/2015 13:26

YABU.

WeirdCatLadyIsFeelingFestive · 04/12/2015 13:28

Bwahahahaha OP, thanks, you've given me a right laugh 😂