Men who are unaware their child isn’t biologically theirs

[K8ate]

Hearing stories and seeing various online statistics, the average percentage of men who are unaware that their child isn’t biologically theirs ranges from 10% upwards.
Surely these figures can’t be accurate?

So, as I said, it is not “English law”. It is English and Welsh law.

“child of the family” refers to married couples. A child “of the marriage” will potentially have a right to inherit.

The divorce solicitor who informed me of the concept only works in England.

As there are various a Acts where this concept is used I'm not going to check the legal jurisdictions of all of them.

He will have studied English and Welsh law, because they are one and the same.

Not all solicitors are equally skilled.

My DD was kept with me at all times when I gave birth to her. We even had to wait for them to get the right cot to move her with me before we left the labour room. This was in addition to wrist bands.

I know people whose babies had to go to NICU. The father or birthing partner accompanied the baby until the baby was "settled" if the mother didn't. Again baby and mother were tagged.

I suspect the cases of sending baby alone anywhere now are much rarer than they used to be so that is now harder to mix babies up.

Yeah when I had mine they put a wristband with the name on both wrists, and said to let them know if either of them came off.

Apart from all the bits where Senedd has passed Wales-only law, like the ban on corporal punishment of children. English law and Welsh law are no longer exactly the same.

Yes, they do but the bands are very loose and can slip off (or used to be, at least). I remember having to keep replacing my son's ankle band back onto his ankle because it came off during nappy changing and dressing. Hope I brought the correct baby home! 😂

@SemperIdem Lots of solicitors and barristers including those in family law are women so I'm puzzled why you automatically think a solicitor is a man.

Anyway @MaidOfAle has kindly pointed out some differences to you.

There are three legal jurisdictions in the UK.

Scotland (which remained a separate legal jurisdiction when it united with England in 1707)

Northern Ireland (split from Ireland in the 1920s)

England and Wales. Formerly just known as England. The Welsh Assembly makes law for the Welsh part of it, which confuses matters.

<end of pedantry>

And let's get back to false paternity events as that's much more interesting.

I remember one absolutely outstanding Jeremy Kyle show. A paternity test one of course.

Woman started dating Man. Then left Man to be with Man's Father. Then cheated on Man's Father with Man. Then fell pregnant.

Big question over the baby's dad, of course.

Turned out the baby wasn't either of theirs, it was Unknown Third Party Man.

The way some people live their lives...

sorry if someone else has mentioned this.
In 1950s they started a huge study using blood types to help undertsand something about blood types. They accessed data eg via GPs. It was anonomous, but part of the point was family relationships, so they did know that person A and person B had son C.

The study showed that a really high % of kids were not the child of the supposed father. Something like 20-30%.

The study was stopped, and you couldn't do it now due to GDPR concerns.
It is also likely that in 1950s compared to now the figures might be different due to different societal expectations.

The one I remember was woman gets pregnant, man questions paternity as thinks she was cheating, woman says she did cheat but it was after she conceived. She found out she was pregnant and was so happy she went out drinking and dancing and had a one night stand to celebrate 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I wonder how much chimerism is a factor, particularly in the anonymised blood type studies.

when my first dc was born, 21 years ago, they were very strict about every baby having 2 bracelets, on wrist and ankle.

The bracelets were both checked about 3 times as we took the baby home.
There was on occasion (when I was in on observation with a later pregnancy) when they found a baby with both tags fallen off, and the hospitla immediately out the maternity department on lockdown until every baby had been checked and matched with the mother so they could be sure who the untagged baby was. This is even though the wristband would have been in the cot with the baby!

Chimerism can make a child appear to have a missed maternity event, if the mother's cheeks and ovaries are not the same genetically. Same applies to the father's cheeks and testicles for missed paternity events.

I believe that DNA test should be mandatory, weather you are married or single. This will elevate many problems down the line, as keep the chids best interest intact.

Who pays?

Oh please, that is not NHS policy

i don’t live in the Uk. I never said it was the nhs policy. That was the policy of the private obstetrician clinic that I went to. Which is what I said in my post.

You did not say you went privately

Sure, they should maybe offer it; but the vast majority of parents do both know for an absolute fact who the parents of their child are - with no possibility whatsoever of anybody else being a potential contender - and testing it would cause real offence.

I'd put it in the same category as the French law that requires all drivers to carry a personal breathalyser in the car with them - even those who are firmly teetotal, including those for whom drinking alcohol is considered sinful or who simply could not tolerate alcohol for medical reasons.

Of course people are going to be very insulted - just like if the police randomly knocked on your door and took away all the sharp knives from your kitchen for forensic testing 'just in case you've been using them for killing people'.

Yeah, my ex had a "son who was definitely not his. But I do vaguely remember my ex having an inkling that perhaps his son wasn´t his, but dared not entertain that notion.

I didn’t say I went publicly either. I just said the obstetrician said that to me which he did. What’s your point?

This is primarily a UK forum and UK healthcare is primarily public sector ie the NHS.

Understanding will be improved if you specify private/not in the Uk in threads like this.