Biological fathers - Archbishop Welby

[mrsmuddlepies]

Very brave of Justin Welby to go public with this story. I have always admired his compassion and humanity. However, it makes me wonder how common it is for fathers to unknowingly not be the biological parent of their child? There was a recent thread which suggested a surprisingly high percentage. I wonder how many other high profile and ordinary families have this kind of secret?

[Boolovessulley]

What will the consequences of this be?

Will all biological fathers suddenly form a bond with their children? I doubt it.

We already have a huge amount of fathers who do not support their own children surlley thus will add to that number.

I do see the valiidity of it if a man is in doubt and think he should be able to force a Dan test but then there is absolutely no obligation for him to financially support that child.

That's a whole new thread.

[CotswoldStrife]

I think he's been very gracious in his statement and paid tribute to the parents that raised him (and it sounds like a very tough childhood, would like to think that I could be so forgiving).

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

Dna testing every time, we all know women are lying trollopes

Seriously, what a nasty, misogynistic idea.

[SirBernardWoolley]

Scaredy that's not how it works. Reading between the lines, the Telegraph will have approached him saying they were planning to run the rumour story and did he have any comment. He likely agreed to do the test at that point so he could either possibly knock the story on the head, or, in the event it wasn't the result he expected, get softer coverage for his mother by having cooperated. Is that really not coercive in any way? If he had simply wanted to find out the truth, why would he need a newspaper to "help" him?

It would never have been published if it had been the expected result - 'ABC's father is his father'. That's even less of a story than this!

His parentage has no bearing on his job and this is a very intrusive story for both him and his mother.

[TippyTappyLappyToppy]

Cotswold totally agree.

[TippyTappyLappyToppy]

Lumpy people who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. Why are some people so defensive and aggressive on the issue? It's not just about paternal parentage it's useful in many areas; genetic counselling, crime prevention, sexual crime and rape cases, what the problem?

[mummytime]

From what I read his mother was in a confused and chaotic state at the time. She had protected sex with one man but unprotected with another, and just assumed the baby must have been conceived in unprotected sex.
However looking at the photos you can see the distinct resemblance with the real father.

And if the telegraph didn't run with it, someone else probably would.
Of course it is much less of a story than others this week which centre on the PM.

[thatstoast]

The problem from me is it starts from the assumption that women can't be trusted to tell the truth. All women. So a woman who's been in a committed relationship for years and years, maybe struggled with fertility, had miscarriages etc and the first thing that happens after her baby is born is a dna test to make sure she's not a lying tart. The idea comes from a very misogynistic place.

What about the legalities of this? All children born to married parents are presumed to be the children of the mother's husband. So, as she was married to Gavin Welby, what would have happened if she'd told the registrar that Justin Welby was someone else's child? What happens in that case?

[Scaredycat3000]

Sir
His parentage has no bearing on his job
The revelation caused Lambeth Palace to check canon law as there was a rule for many centuries that illegitimate children could not become archbishops Until recently the church felt illegitimacy meant you couldn't do the job. If you read the rest of the article this was very old and common gossip for him, without his DNA there would have been no story, whilst I understand how journalism works, I'm not naive, this wasn't a blackmail story. It also has links to Welby's personal statement that lead onto his Mothers statement. This is an organization that happily covers up sexual abuse on a grand scale to be covered up, they could have hidden this if they wanted.

[JanetWeb2812]

The JC - Jewish Chronicle - went very big on Welby`s Jewish roots when he became Archbishop of Canterbury. I wonder how they will react to the news that he is 100% Goy?

[TippyTappyLappyToppy]

mummy that's what she's telling us and perhaps herself, and she comes from an era where she never could have imagined that her version could have been challenged or disproven in any unequivocal way, fifty or sixty years later.

[TippyTappyLappyToppy]

thats I don't think omen would think like tha at all,they would just accept it as one of many routine tests that are done.

I remember being PG with DC1 having a blood test that could have shown HIV had I had it, which I didn't and had no real reason to think I might, but for a brief mad moment I still panicked about every encounter I'd had that wasn't a LTR and was unprotected sex.

Rationally I understood the need for the tests and the huge unlikelihood that I would be found HIV positive but irrationally I felt vulnerable and inexplicably guilty over nothing at all.

[thatstoast]

I'm not sure women simply accepting that their children must be subjected to tests to prove paternity is a good thing. I would certainly protest against it.

[raisedbyguineapigs]

Yes but HIV can be latent for years. Your previous partner could have given it to you and you didn't know. Your current partner could be unfaithful nand given it to you, and a test will protect the child from contracting a fatal disease. Paternity testing is saying that every woman, most of whom are in committed relationships when they conceive a child, is probably unfaithful. It's not done for the health of the child.

[raisedbyguineapigs]

not fatal, but life limiting, I should say

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

Tippy

People who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear

Hmmm, a quote from Joseph Goebbels the Nazi minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

The very idea that because a tiny, tiny, tiny proportion of women lie all women should be treated a potential liars is truly vile.

[mrsmuddlepies]

Lumpy, why make such provocative statements, even if you mean them sarcastically?
Dna testing every time, we all know women are lying trollopes ........
on some subconscious level it will stick in minds. I suspect you are being deliberately disingenuous. Ordered, well reasoned arguments are far more effective rather than cheap sarcasm.

[Scaredycat3000]

But that is a quote from Goebbels. And suggesting all babies as standard get DNA tested, simply to check the biological father is who the mother says is the father, is insinuating that all women are lying who are sleeping with more than one man. Getting offended at the truth seems a bit strange.

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

I find the proposal that all new parents have a dna test provocative tbh

It is straight out of an MRA handbook and at the heart of it is the suggestion that women are likely to lie.

[Boolovessulley]

Lumpy-
I refused to have the hiv test.
I do not have hiv.

I have nothing to hide I know 100% that I do not have any std.

Blood tests are no just a routine test for everyone.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

I would be totally in favour of standard DNA testing at birth. I really don't understand what the objection to it is at all.

1)The cost
2) The assumption that mothers are lying until proved otherwise

[RedToothBrush]

people who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear

Wow just wow.

Do some reading. You need to.

[mrsmuddlepies]

Take from the Guardian, quoting Archbishop Justin Welby,
The archbishop added: “My own experience is typical of many people. To find that one’s father is other than imagined is not unusual. To be the child of families with great difficulties in relationships, with substance abuse or other matters, is far too normal. And he said that he found who he was in his religious faith, “not in genetics”.

[HooseRice]

Saw this on the news and can't figure out where the public interest is here.

[TippyTappyLappyToppy]

if you honestly think that the only good or valid reason for doing standard DNA testing is that it will be assumed all women are liars then you are be a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

And i do think that in this context it is true that people who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. I don't need to do any reading thanks - how patronising.